The sleeping giant - or the Chinese Dragon - has woken. At 8.08 pm on the 8th day of the 8th month of 2008 - China made its formal statement to the world that it has arrived. Much in the way that Japan announced its rejuvenation after the ravages of World War II, during the Tokyo Olympics of 1964, China, long in hibernation, staged an extravagant opening ceremony for the Games spending more than US$ 40 billion (Rs. 4,400 billion).

In comparison, the Rs. 2.8 billion spent by the Sri Lanka Government to host eight South Asian leaders last week might seem a drop in the ocean, but then, China is now an economic powerhouse, and likely to be the most powerful economy in the world in the not too distant future.

The organisers unveiled their ancient civilization based largely on Confucian wisdom nurtured by emperor after emperor and the four great contributions to the world - paper, printing, the compass and gunpowder. And yet, China today remains a one-party state, the Communist Party controls State policy and individual freedom. Dissent is defined by the State. The iron curtain will not allow us to know of any stink behind the mega show.

Modern China is not there for the picking like in the 19th century when Britain and Portugal obtained Hong Kong and Macau with the lure and lucre of opium, or when Japan invaded it. Even when Mao Zedong's People's Army took over China, they were too weak to take control of Taiwan. Wars erupted in her backyard - in Korea, Vietnam draining China's limited resources. Ideological differences with the then Soviet Union separated the two communist giants.

The Cultural Revolution and its cousin, the Great Leap Forward brought disastrous results, but the nuclear power status in the 1960s stirred hope - just like the Beijing Olympics have today. It was reformist Deng Xiaoping who revolutionised the Chinese economy, and steered it in the 1980s, keeping one foot on the brakes, the other on the accelerator.

The democracy wave that swept Eastern Europe and led to the collapse of the then Soviet Union, impacted on China too. Chinese leaders smashed an uprising in Tiananmen Square in the heart of Beijing but as the Olympics are held, Tiananmen Square is forgotten.

The West tried to link sports with politics - like they did with the Moscow Olympics in 1980, objecting to China's human rights record, but to no avail. Threats of boycotts fizzled out as China emerged as the world's fourth largest economic super-power with a US$ 6 trillion GDP recording a multi-billion dollar surplus from trade with the United States and other countries.

Today, China is capable of opposing the US and the West on Iran's nuclear issue, the Darfur crisis, the Kosovo issue etc. Western attitudes towards China too are split; US President George Bush attended the opening ceremony along with 103 other world leaders, while British PM stayed away and will only attend the closing ceremony, to take over the baton as Britain hosts the next Olympics.

While Chinese goods flood the world at hugely competitive prices (just check in the Pettah ), China's billion people have become a vast market for Western BMWs, Jaguars, and Rolls Royce cars, the finest of wines and cognacs, most expensive wrist-watches, music and TV sets and other mod-cons. No nation or leader can now ignore its growing influence.

Since Sri Lanka's Independence, the two countries have had the Rice-Rubber Pact in the 1950s, the BMICH in the 1970s, continued military aid from the 1980s to-date in our most dire crisis, and now, the development of the southern harbour and other economic activities. China-Sri Lanka friendship goes back centuries to when the traveller Fa Hsien visited Lanka and there was trade between the two countries. But the golden thread that has bound the countries has been Buddhism.

That is why the situation in Tibet is heart-breaking for many Lankans. China's stubborn insistence that the Dalai Lama not be given a visa to visit Lanka to pay homage at the Dalada Maligawa (Temple of the Tooth) in Kandy and the Sri Maha Bodhiya at Anuradhapura displays its coldness when faced with matters concerning its national interest.

But since China opts for diplomacy to war in most issues, in contrast to the often abrasive foreign policies of the US and the West, one can only hope that China will ease its opposition to his visit. It will be then that we can echo; "One world; One dream", the message of the Beijing Olympics.

The focus this fortnight in Beijing nevertheless will be the Games itself and its great spirit of sportsmanship in line with the Olympian motto "Citius, Altius, Fortius", a Latin phrase meaning "Swifter, Higher, Stronger". There are lessons for all in the Olympian Creed; "The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win, but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph, but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered, but to have fought well".