'To sleep: Perchance to dream." Students of Shakespeare worldwide will recognize these words spoken by Hamlet. Dreams have inspired people and nations for centuries, perhaps none more so than the American Dream. Yet dreams are precious and can be broken. Britain's Electric Light Orchestra in their famous pop hit implored us to "hold on tight to your dream". China should do that next year as it rises to many challenges.

As 2013 comes to a close, China's top leader Xi Jinping's Chinese Dream for the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation has come to occupy center stage and in the coming Year of the Horse, China will gallop forward in its pursuit. This dream is both a personal and varied one for individuals, and a collective one for the nation. Hope and harmony feature loudly in it.

After 35 years of unbroken economic growth, often around double digits, why shouldn't China, which has raised hundreds of millions of its people out of poverty, dare to dream?