How did the Chinese view their country's place in the world

China is the home of an ancient civilization who believe they can depend on themselves. Chinese people, by nature and culture, are not aggressive, and don't like open direct conflict. Their culture is very reserved and implicit. There're much pride when dealing with western powers, after all, they are the civilized world and they see aggresive western powers as barbarians, when weapons are used for resolving conflict.

There's a deep rooted sense of "center of the world" and entitlement for 5000 years of tradition, mixed up with the shame and humiliation for losing the first Opium War in 1840s.

When it comes to western nations, Chinese people have mixed feelings about them, especially with the US. On the one hand, they are fascinated by America, the dominant world power. They are inspired by movies/TV shows, music, fashion, pop culture ... They believe this to be so interesting and new. On the other hand, they feel the U. S. are constantly scrutinizing human rights, getting involved in their problems with Tibet, and they feel as if western involvement has turned Taiwan against them. They believe none of these are business tht foreigners should meddle with.

The bottom line is, most Chinese people just want to live a better life, buy apartments, get married, have kids ... very much like regular Americans or other western peoples. As for the Chinese government, it really just wants to maintain its iron grip in China, being the "factory of the world" requires disclipline, rebellions can be a big problem in China. We are talking about 1.3 billion people!