Not that long ago, in the 1950s, Mao initiated a nationwide campaign called the "Great Leap Forward" in China, and the slogan he coined -- "Catch up with and leapfrog and the U.K. and the U.S," which I've paraphrased -- turned the country into a dangerous mess of chaotic passion, deception and fraud. The campaign failed, of course, with a very brutal ending that was coupled with natural disasters, which lead to famine and cost tens of millions of lives from 1959-1961.

Decades have passed. But time hasn't faded the Chinese people's memory of that mad era. Therefore, when I saw that China is set to overtake the U.S. (see the original report from the Financial Times) in terms of manufacturing output, the first thing that came to my mind was, how will the Chinese people take it?

I checked Chinese media and online forums. Yes, there are expressions of pride and excitement. But an op-ed from China's government-backed English-language newspaper China Daily went beyond that. The article highlighted the challenges China faces, underscored the fact that China is still behind even the world's average level of industrialization (otherwise, it'd account for about one-fifth of global manufacturing given the size of its population), and stressed the new goal of sustainability instead of blind expansion of low-end manufacturing.

Those are fair, objective and constructive points. No one can argue about how much and how urgent sustainability is needed in China for the overall good of the world. I'm glad that China is examining its success in the right context with modesty and vision. That attitude alone is a huge step up.