i very much agree with what stephen roach was just saying. this is an actual heart felt comment based on my having lived there recently. as stephen has, too. there are things in international relations and world history which you can say are inevitable. maybe it was inevidentble that germany and england would come to blows a hundred years ago or inevidentble that colonial nations would rebel against their colonial masters. the situation between the u.s. and china i think nothing is inevitable it's striking for this huge a shift in world power or world resources, there is as little inevitable conflict built in as i think there are. the view among many people in china is surprisingly non-hostile towards the united states. non-hostile shading towards respectful or positive. i think a lot of this is within the power of both the publics on both sides to manager the next 30 years. china is going to become more and more important. sometimes it will be a larger economy than ours is unless they suffer a disaster or catastrophe, which would be even wors