Beijing - President Hu Jintao on Thursday urged China's 1.3 billion people to unite behind the ruling Communist Party to build a "rich, strong, democratic, civilized, harmonious and modernized socialist nation." Hu made his call in a speech to some 200,000 people in Beijing's Tiananmen Square and millions who watched live television broadcasts of celebrations to mark the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China.

Competition between India and China suggests that the Indian Ocean is where global struggles will play out in the twenty-first century. The old borders of the Cold War map are crumbling fast, and Asia is becoming a more integrated unit, from the Middle East to the Pacific.