TAIPEI -- Two decades ago, Gordon C. Chang's book "The Coming Collapse of China" famously predicted the fall of Communist rule in the world's most populous country in 2011. The bestseller easily found an audience, as few people at the time took China or the Chinese Communist Party seriously in 2001.
Today, the perception pendulum has swung in the opposite direction, with many viewing China as an unstoppable economic, political and military juggernaut -- one increasingly viewed by democracies worldwide as a rival, or worse.
