On the Eurostar, heading back to Brussels, I opened today’s Economist magazine and learned from an editorial that there will henceforth be a weekly section in the magazine devoted to China, just as there is one devoted to the US and one to Europe. It is, says the editorial ‘the first time since we began our detailed coverage of the United States in 1942 that we have singled out a country in this way.’ The principal reason, the editorial continues, is that ‘China is now an economic superpower and is fast becoming a military force capable of unsettling America. But our interest in China lies also in its politics: it is governed by a system that is out of step with global norms. In ways that were never true of post-war Japan and may never be true of India, China will both fascinate and agitate the rest of the world for a long time to come.’ At least as far as the Economist is concerned,the future we have been hearing so much about has arrived.