China, China, China

It's all about China these days whether the subject is human rights or trade. This superpower is such a force to be reckoned with, that U.S. presidential "carnival barker" Donald Trump promises to make the country a major focus of his campaign. Mr. Trump promises to stick it to China in such a way that the country's economy will come tumbling down after the aggressive import taxes and tariffs he assesses on their goods.

Notably, Chinese president Hu Jintao was recently in the United States at the invitation of President Barack Obama to discuss ways that the two countries can work together on issues such as trade, the environment, human rights, energy or other ways, for the benefit of both countries. It is unclear that aggressive taxation of Chinese products will have any postive impact on the American economy or reputation. Moreover, such tactics could get the U.S. accused of anti-dumping by the World Trade Organization and the Chinese could retaliate by manipulating its currency and using other tactics that could be extremely detrimental to the United States' economy. But maybe Mr. Trump knows something that the rest of us do not on this issue. After all, he didn't become a billionaire by playing nice or playing by the rules necessarily.

Having said that, China is still the talk of the international community. Almost every U.S. leader, including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, has been making a point of making personal trips to China to try to drum up commerce with the Chinese that would benefit their cities and states.