Being a superpower is not all pomp and pleasure. There is more to it than attending summits, deploying aircraft carriers and overthrowing irritating regimes in the Caribbean with which you disagree. You also have to be able to handle criticism, even when you are grappling with a natural disaster such as Hurricane Katrina or the deadly earthquake that struck China’s Sichuan province on Monday.

That China has yet to grasp the downside of its imminent superpower status is evident from a plaintive e-mail doing the rounds of internet forums. The anonymous author of the text, published and republished in various forms by Chinese patriots in response to protests over the Beijing Olympics and the Chinese crackdown in Tibet, bitterly condemns western hypocrisy about the rise of China.