You must have heard that old joke about the Chinese dog and the Indian dog – no, not me – that meet at the border. Everyone has. How the Chinese dog, in his fancy jacket and his collar studded with rhinestones, looks down at the Indian dog and demands the respectful tribute of a bone because of how rich and powerful he is. “You are but a stray, a fallen specimen of a once great – though not as great as ours – civilisation, merely a running dog of the capitalists,” the Chinese dog yaps. “Look at my imperious profile, my well-fed muscles, my glossy fur. After a Century of Humiliation, we are now on top, and teaching the world to kowtow again, as it should.”
