Mainland China spent 10 years working diligently to bring its first "international show"-the Beijing Olympics-to fruition, only to have its efforts derailed when protesters against its response to the mid-March, 2008 demonstrations in Tibet, and other issues, disrupted April's Olympic Torch relay to such an extent that reporters with The New York Times went so far as to express sympathy for China's debacle.

Now, in May 2010, China is unveiling its second grand international show, also in the works for a decade-Expo 2010 in Shanghai. Though April's Qinghai earthquake has generated some uncertainty, the global reaction against Chinese power has quieted.

This might be because the World Expo lacks a grand opening ceremony, or it might be that economically oriented Shanghai doesn't excite political sensibilities. The key for China is that it is now a major power, and attempting to obstruct a major power is futile. The financial crisis of late 2008 clearly demonstrated China's financial clout, while the economic recovery that has followed has shown its resolve and adaptability. The Western media now even refers to China and the US as the G2. While China has long asserted that it would never become a hegemon, its great wealth makes it domineering and ostentatious in spite of efforts to appear otherwise.

It has taken the World Expo 159 years to make its way from the UK to a developing nation.

When London hosted the first World Expo in 1851, a Cantonese businessman named Xu Rongcun was the only Chinese to participate and won a major expo prize for the 12 bolts of silk he exhibited. In 1915, Yuan Shikai's Beiyang government had even more success, garnering some 1,211 prizes for the more than 10,000 items it displayed at the San Francisco World's Fair.

Interestingly, a 1910 science-fiction novel called New China by Lu Shi'e imagined Shanghai's then remote and uninhabited Pudong area hosting a World Expo in 100 years time.

In the book, China had recovered the British and French concessions and "humbled" the West. Lu's imagined expo featured a railway tunnel through which electric trains constantly flew, and a large rail bridge spanning the Huangpu River, much like the present-day Nanpu Bridge. His descriptions match today's Pudong so well that Premier Wen Jiabao himself called them miraculous.

But the attention focused on Shanghai is making Hong Kong nervous. The competition between the two cities to be the Asia-Pacific region's center for finance, transportation, and the administration of transnational corporations is a zero-sum game. Striving to maintain its independence under the "one country, two systems" setup, Hong Kong hasn't been aggressive enough in forging ties to the interior and has therefore failed to leverage China's strengths for its own benefit. The city is now attempting to use the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong express rail link to bind itself more closely to China and strengthen the Pearl River Delta's position vis-a-vis the Yangtze River Delta.

Singapore is keeping a close eye on the competition between the two cities and wondering what advantages it has over both. Business is a bloodsport, brutal and merciless.

Taipei too is well qualified to be an Asia-Pacific hub and has implemented plans towards that end. It also just hosted a political leaders' debate on the proposed Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement with mainland China. With the close of that debate, the lingering constraints of former president Lee Teng-hui's "no haste, be patient" mantra may soon be loosed, and Taiwan must face the resulting challenges with courage.

This month's issue includes several other pieces on subjects living courageously: researcher Hwang Mei-hsiu, who is seeking to preserve the Formosan black bear in its mountain habitat; Chinese expatriate writer Ha Jin, who writes in English for English speakers; and autodidact historian and Academia Sinica academician Tsao Yung-ho. All of these individuals have acted bravely in their lives and are deserving of both respect and emulation.