Are you sure? My uninformed guess would be to assume that if you're critical and they can't just shut you down, they'll more likely pay you a reasonable amount to shut up.

Wrong. There's negative China articles coming out every day. If you just browse HN you'll find a fair selection of them

> Who's going to restrain their behavior then? My guess is: nobody.

It is very well possible that the downfall of the Chinese regime will come from the interior. The regime depends on economic growth like an addict on heroin - they need to feed 1.3B people, of which many are transitioning from poverty to middle-class level.

And much of the Western world is nearing saturation with Chinese products (and in addition, the Western economies aren't growing that much as before themselves!) - that explains the Chinese investments across Africa. They're on quite a gamble at the moment... either a modernized Africa will be the new target market so that the Chinese economy can grow or they're screwed. The question is: will Africa get up to speed before the Chinese economy collapses from a lack of growth?

My guess as to who (or what) will restrain their behavior: demographics. China is a dynamic country with a powerful economy, but they also have a enormous demographic time bomb ticking (an aging population and a low birth rate - one that isn't responding that well to relaxing population control laws).

Also, as for violently annexing territory, they are mild-mannered compared to pretty much every other 'young superpower'. It's worth putting this in perspective with the historical behavior of European superpowers as well as the USA and USSR.