China: The center cannot hold By Li YongYan BEIJING - The West has often referred to China as the Middle Kingdom, in a mild mockery of Chinese emperors' illusion that their land occupied the middle location on the flat and square earth. Actually, the name has another, more accurate interpretation that has escaped Western observers: China also means central state. The "Middle Kingdom" is a misnomer because the central authorities don't know, or care, as much about the world outside their empire as about the provinces within their borders. The central state functions like the central nervous system that issues...