[By Liu Rui/Global Times ]

China has more scholars and commentators enthusiastic about their home country's "international position" than anywhere else in the world.

This isn't surprising, since China is experiencing much more rapid and conspicuous changes than other equal players across the globe.

But we need to think realistically about our strengths. China has surpassed Japan in terms of political impact and geo-strategic advantage in the Asia-Pacific region. It is well-accepted that China is the biggest player in Asia.

However, despite the fact that Japan lags behind China in hard figures, the island country's alliance with the US has compensated for its inadequacy.

Meanwhile, Europe should not be ignored. Even if China's GDP outweighed any single country in Europe, the EU, as a collective economy, is almost as large as the US.

The euro has also become an international currency that has the same competitiveness as the US dollar, while the yuan still has a long way to go in its internationalization.

Therefore, although China's GDP ranks second in the world and is still growing, it is unrealistic to say that China is the second global power in the world and will reach the same status of the US in one or two decades.

In particular, China is far behind others in terms of soft power as the country has little voice in the international public opinion.

It's appropriate to say that China is the strongest of all developing countries. In spite of this, other emerging nations, such as India, Brazil and Russia, have their own strengths.