Holding the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings in Beijing, China's capital, brings as much attention to the host nation as to the meetings themselves. This is perhaps China's pride, but in many cases it also brings trouble.

In the past week, Beijing's air quality was satisfactory. Although the blue skies gracing the capital resulted from human intervention, it has brought some positive signs. To ensure good air quality, we need to have great determination and pay huge costs. APEC gave us the answer.

The meeting itself can be called perfect. Predictions that China and the US would fight for Asia-Pacific dominance did not play out. The US and Russia didn't flex their muscles. There was even a breakthrough in the chilly Sino-Japanese relationship. Such smooth high-level meetings are rare these days.

But still there is negativity. A Bloomberg article on Monday claimed that "Beijing's financial charm offensive lacks one crucial element: love." It cited the $1.25 trillion in total outbound investment China plans to make over the next decade, the $40 billion for the Silk Road fund and the $50 billion for the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. It went on to say that the money "buys China lots of attention and any meeting it wants - just not the affectionate 'soft power' it craves."

It's rare that affectionate words like "love" are used in articles about international politics. The Chinese are fully aware that the country's soft power is still weak and cannot be built up overnight.

But what China has done benefits countries along the Silk Road and the Asia-Pacific. The unhappy tone of the Bloomberg article read as if China had done something bad.

Western opinions always portray China as the world's nouveau riche cousin. But China's overseas investment did not come easily. China's economic surge came from labor-intensive industries, but now it is being kept outside Western-led financial systems. China holds a sincere belief when it invests in foreign lands. We can't wait for the foreign currencies we earned to be devalued due to global inflation; instead we must invest. Many nations are in need of such investment.

Chinese society has always debated the necessity of large-scale overseas investment. Domestic development also needs funding, and the risks of international investment are huge.

But China needs to step out, pushed by its own development and international responsibilities. Since we do care whether we make money, it wouldn't be worth losing money just to gain soft power.

Countries that make outward investments are welcomed in today's world. The Asia-Pacific region, including the US, encourages China to do so. We hope the Western media will let go of their prejudices against China.