Take a look at the cartoon above. It's from China Daily, a government-run newspaper, and was posted today on the website of Xinhua, a state news wire. The title is "U.S. hegemony."

It's a perfect distillation of the criticisms one often hears in Beijing -- from both ordinary folks and analysts -- about America and its policies: The U.S. is a fat guy eating all of the cake while the rest of the world sits with small, empty plates.

Just look at that corpulent, big-nosed beast, pushing everyone away with his sheer mass as he greedily clutches the knife and fork. That sneer! Must he take EVERYTHING and sneer about it too? And who is at the sharp bend of that imperialist elbow? Why, it looks vaguely like a Chinese man!

And that is what makes the cartoon especially revealing -- it is a display of what many Western observers complain is a tendency by the Chinese government to present itself as a victim in world affairs. Even as China invests billions of dollars in Latin America, the Middle East, Central Asia, Africa -- to say nothing of U.S. Treasury bills -- it continues to fall back on this sort of image, of being a pauper at the table.

There was a period when China was a poor country, struggling to pay its debts and regain its place at the table of nations. But that was a different time. 

China is now the world's third-largest economy and is expected to take the second spot before too long. In fact, it was reported this week that China has surpassed the United States as the world's largest energy consumer.

Of course, there is no denying American might in the world -- Washington's cut of the cake is a big one. But given the continued rise of Beijing and its riches, that small plate next to the U.S. seems a little ... well, cartoonish.