Conscious of the existence of an influential current of thought in the US, which looked at China’s rise with apprehension and a sense of impending conflict between the establishes and the rising power, the Chinese conducted a propaganda campaign against what was called the ‘China threat theory’ . A prominent adviser to China’s leaders persuaded them in 2003 to promulgate what was called the inevitability of China’s peaceful rise’ (heping jueqi) However, the slogan was soon dropped as the Chinese for ‘rise’ had the connotation of ‘upsurge’, which it was thought might convey the wrong idea, and the linking of that to the word ‘peaceful’ might send the opposite to Taiwan, which then might no longer be deterred from seeking independence. It was then decided that Deng Xiaoping’s statement that China only sought ‘ peaceful development’ was best after all, at least for official purpose.58 The episode also revealed how seriously China’s leaders took the image of their country, which they wanted to portray as a ‘responsible power’.