Still on Chinese people's minds is the period when China was forced to open up to trading with Western countries.

In the 19th Century, European nations used military power to pry open China's market. To earn hard currency from China, the British and Americans even smuggled opium into China and basically drugged its people.

Japan meanwhile forced China to sign unequal treaties that allowed foreigners to establish autonomous economic bases in the country.

Previous centuries of being taken advantage of, and recent decades of being mired in communist economic standstill, have instilled in the Chinese the sense - even to this day - that China is vulnerable, in need of protecting itself and catching up with stronger nations.