These comparisons are not neutral, and one may detect in the analogy between China today and nineteenth-century Germany an element of that guilty pleasure in others’ troubles that the Germans call “Schadenfreude.” Asia may be doing well economically now, according to this view, but just wait: rising nationalism, China’s appetite for power, and the rest of Asia’s desire to curb its ambitions will necessarily impede economic growth and restore the West’s global primacy.
这些对比并非是中立的，人们也许会看到，用今天的中国和十九世纪的德国相比较，是对别人的麻烦抱着一种幸灾乐祸的态度，用德语说就是“Schadenfreude”。根据这种观点，亚洲今天也许在经济上发展得很好，但是请不要急着下结论。民族主义上升，中国对权力的欲望，以及其他亚洲国家阻止其野心的企图必然会阻碍经济的发展，从而恢复西方国家独霸全球。