But the Western imperialists were not willing to acknowledge the fact that the Chinese people had stood up. For those who were able to subjugate other people with their gunboats in the past were not ready to concede unless you were able to withhold their military onslaught on the battleground.

Only a few months after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the US got involved in the Korean Civil War, with the objective to reverse the verdict of Chinese Civil War. As the American-led UN forces approached the Chinese border, ignoring repeated Chinese warnings, the new Chinese government was forced to send volunteers to Korea to push American-led UN forces back to the 38th parallel in order to defend China's territory integrity.

China's victory in Korea was not enough to convince the US military authorities that China had finally acquired the ability to defend itself. The US involvement in Vietnam Civil War was another attempt to test if the Chinese people meant what they said. Chinese people's support for the Vietnamese people enabled the Vietnamese people to wear the so-called superpower down enough to recognize the fact that it could not always have its way despite its military superiority.

President Nixon was finally forced to concede that China had become a power that the US had to reckon with. With US stopped blocking China's entry in the United Nations, and China finally took its rightful place among the nations of the world with a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, which the Chinese people had earned with a sacrifice of 40 million lives, fighting the Japanese fascists for 14 years during WWII, and which the US had blocked for over 20 years.

It took Chinese people a long time to realize their dream: to be their own master, and to enjoy what they have without outside interference. This Chinese dream does not include any menace to other people in the world who harbor no ill intention toward the Chinese people. The Chinese people should never forget their own history of being victimized by foreign imperialism and colonialism, and should work with other nations, including those who brought harm to them in the past, to build a more peaceful world where every nation, big and small, can co-exist peacefully without fear. That is the only way, and the wisest way that the human race can survive on this planet.

The new generation of Chinese leaders and the Chinese people are faced with many challenges down the road, such as official corruption and environmental degradation brought about by fast economic growth. But the Chinese Communist Party has accumulated great wisdom in fighting corruption in the past. The Chinese government is better equipped to fight social ills once its leaders make up their minds. The world has already taken notice of the determination demonstrated and measures taken by the new generation of Chinese leaders in fighting official corruption.

The Chinese government has succeeded in realizing the Chinese dream gradually because the Chinese Communist Party and government have been representing the best long-term interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people in the policies it implemented. The future success of the Chinese dream will depend on whether the party and the government will continue to represent the best interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people, and whether the Chinese dream will bring peace and prosperity to the world, particularly its neighbors. Then they will be able to bring the Chinese people to work together to realize the Chinese dream, which I hope will bring about a better world for everybody on this planet.

The author is a Professor of Warren Wilson College in the US.

The opinions expressed here do not represent the views of the China Daily website