Japan has nothing to gain of they choose to acquire nuclear weapons. They are an island nation, making nuclear weapon will only make them a target with no escape route.
Bottom line, Americans are pussies. When the going gets tough they either bail and call it a tactical retreat, or resort to weapons of mass destruction, chemical included, the viets jungle monkies loved it.
China has no need to meddle in the middle east, they don't have to take a moral ground on any conflict. Money does all the talking and the Arabs, extremist or not love it. The west can fight all they want, china will come afterwards and buy everything they see fit since they are the only one...
Haven't u seen the latest data, the worlds investment banks concur with the Chinese that 7.5% is on track, still 4 times faster than the us. Perhaps you need to look harder for proper sources rather than blogs on yahoo that doesn't even work.
I am from an ordinary chinese family, my family is not well connected but before our move abroad my parents got an education and they held down jobs and bought an apartment in Shanghai in the early 90s. Although the same stories can't be applied again in Shanghai with its current property value...