Empire. Ask yourself - why did they grab Tibet? Why are they rattling the saber at Taiwan? Why have they not brought North Korea to heal?
Strange italicized quote... ( I know, I've done it myself :-)
So it's kind of a "manifest destiny" type of thing then... how does collecting massive amounts of green pieces of paper help that ?
BTW, Taiwan may someday be recollected as another part of their "one country, two systems" concept - I suspect that the giveaway of Hong Kong by the British might be a poison pill that will eventually swallow all of China.