Asia has been infected by a silent, healthy virus of modernization. There is a remarkably wide and deep consensus among regional leaders that they should focus on modernization and pragmatic development. Because it is silent, the Western media has not noticed and continues to predict doom.

Simmering tensions between China and Japan and in the South China Sea combined with the American "pivot" to Asia have been used by some to produce a narrative that China is a destabilizing force for the region and the world. Many have accused China of being a free rider and troublemaker. Nothing can be further from the truth. On the contrary, China has been a linchpin for stability and development in this important region.

China may join in discussions about hotspot issues with the aim of seeking a peaceful solution, but it will not turn into a party involved in the conflict or take steps that make the problem worse.

According to "End of History" author Francis Fukuyama, China today is much like Bismarck's Germany. It was not a messianic, universalistic or revisionist state, but was very big and powerful, and it had a lot of national interests. China is very much like that today.