There is no plan. I had assumed that China had a plan for everything. On the long flight to Shanghai I read that Beijing had already charted the economy's course as far ahead as 2050. After a brief period when it seemed that American power would go forever uncontested, China's extraordinary economic performance is now reshaping the geopolitical landscape. Surely this ordered, deliberative nation had mapped out the role it would play as a great power?

I was mistaken. Even as much of the rest of the world struggles to adjust to what is being called the Asian century, the message from China itself seems strangely equivocal. Listening to Chinese scholars, military figures, diplomats and Communist party officials this past week, I took it to be roughly as follows: yes, we want, and expect, to be listened to with due respect by other leading powers, not least by the US; no, we are not sure yet as to what we intend to say.