Elizabeth Economy writes in today's Washington Post that China should wait before "extend[ing] itself globally." Good advice! Here's Economy:

Above all, China's leaders need to sort out where they are going politically. It is hard to lead globally when your domestic political system is in massive transition - or, worse, turmoil. Beijing faces more than 90,000 protests annually as a result of endemic corruption and ongoing crises in public health and the environment. Exports, the lifeblood of the Chinese economy, are falling; layoffs are already in the tens of thousands, and China's stock market has lost two-thirds of its value over the past year. Chinese media report daily on a stream of new regulations - to limit the ability of factories to fire workers, to manage state-run reporting or to restructure the public health bureaucracy. Yet all this tinkering at the margins has failed to reassure the Chinese people, or many outside the country, that the government has a clear plan for its political and economic future.

The bargain the Chinese government has had with its people for 30 years has been that the government would provide economic growth, and the people would accept the authoritarian political order. That bargain is breaking down. And news like this makes matters worse.