While the West faces a serious crisis of confidence following last month's attacks in the US, China is revelling in its new-found status as a serious global player.
Hot on the heels of securing the 2008 Olympic Games and clearing the final hurdle for accession to the World Trade Organisation, China last night scored another major victory.
Millions took to the streets in cities and towns all over the country to celebrate the national soccer team's first-ever qualification for the World Cup soccer finals. The scenes were reminiscent of the crazy "ole ole" days in Ireland when we qualified for Italia '90 more than a decade ago.
The Chinese are feeling good about themselves and they are letting it be known. The week-long October national holiday has just ended. It used to be just a couple of days, but the authorities have extended it to a full week to encourage consumer spending.
The strategy is working. Last week broke all records for travel by air, road, and train in China. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese visitors converged on Beijing to visit the flower-bedecked Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.
Swarms of people thronged the food stalls of the main Wanfujing pedestrian area. Shops had their busiest week of the year. The feel-good factor was tangible.
As people across the country shared the traditional mid-autumn moon cakes with their loved ones, there was talk of 2001 being symbolic of great nation rejuvenating.
In July, the country celebrated wildly when Beijing was awarded the 2008 Olympics at its second attempt. It failed in its bid in 1993, partly due to the closeness of events in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
In August this year, Beijing successfully hosted the 21st World University Games. In September, the country's 15-year-old bid for WTO membership cleared all legal hurdles. Full membership is expected before the end of the year.
Still to come this month is the economic APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation) summit in Shanghai, which will be attended by world leaders including President Bush.
On the economic front, China's GDP growth averaged 7.9 per cent in the first eight months of the year, a strong showing against the backdrop of the gloomy international climate.
On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Communist Party of China on July 1st, President Jiang Zemin identified a pressing need for the country to "advance with the times", and to refine its leadership and style of work.
In a dramatic move, he announced that for the first time business people were to be considered for membership of the party. The message was clear: nothing and no-one was going to stand in the way of the nation's path towards prosperity.
On the political front, China has also moved cleverly in the last few weeks to align itself with the West on anti-terrorism measures. It even dispatched an intelligence team to Washington to assist the CIA with information it has on the terrorist threat in the north-west territory of Xinjiang which skirts the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. It all amounts to China becoming more and more part of the international establishment.
An editorial in the official China Daily newspaper this week summed up the feel-good factor.
"For a nation burdened heavily with past glories and humiliations in its relationship with the outside, there might be nothing more worthy of pride than rediscovering its place in the world. That is exactly what is happening to this country.
"The nation's ever deepening involvement with the outside world bears out both its growing competence and its eagerness to participate and contribute. "
However, many uncomfortable realities remain. China's human rights record continues to cause serious concern. There is still deep nervousness at the kind of spontaneous celebrations seen on streets all over China last night and after the successful Olympic bid in July. Police were very much in force: beneath the veneer of openness and progress, some of the old habits remain.
Last Wednesday, I was cycling home with my family from a visit to Tiananmen Square, which was thronged with October holiday sightseers. We had gone just a few hundred yards from the square when we heard screaming. The howls were coming from a woman and her young son who were being bundled into a police car.
The main streets of Beijing had been cleared of beggars for the holiday week. On big occasions in the capital anything not reflecting China in a positive light is simply deleted. This woman's crime was that she had dared show her face in the main thoroughfare to beg for money from the holiday hordes.
Her barefoot son, who looked no more than five, cried helplessly. After 20 minutes, three burly but embarrassed Chinese policemen had failed to get them into the car. With the crowd growing bigger, the policemen abandoned their attempts and roughly frog-marched the pair instead off the main road with a severe warning not to return.
This is the side of life here the authorities will not be rushing to show the world as China rises to takes it place on the international stage.
mdonohoe@irish-times.ie