Kagan may well becorrectto argue that the Chinese see themselves as a traditional rising power, like Germany and Japan in the nineteenth century, both of which stressed military as much as economic strength.
No matter how correct they believe themselvestobe in their choice of off-the-cuff chit-chat topics, however, the moment they talk politics or religion, they brand themselves further in ways that have the potential to eventually affect the depth of the pool from which they draw water income-wise.