China preparing to weather coming storm

Nation faces hard choices if it's to avoid contagion from the financial turmoil

SHANGHAI - Who's afraid of the United States' credit downgrade and the worsening sovereign debt crisis in Europe?

That's the question many Chinese opinion makers, ranging from the People's Daily, to noted financial columnists and myriad bloggers, have been trying to answer since the ill wind of the Western economies blew across the Asia-Pacific region, wiping out many billions of dollars of asset value on August 8, on what has become known as "Black Monday".