Rome's status to the Han Emperor

If I were the Han Emperor, I would view Rome as a rival, but as a rival to respect, not to fight. It is obvious that Rome is just as powerful as China based upon how big their territory is and how many different kinds of animals and products they have to use as they will. Rome is too far away to be a real rival for China, but Rome would be someone to watch out for because they are so powerful. I believe that Rome is considered a rival to China because when I read the passage it seems like the Chinese merchant who was reporting back to the Emperor was reciting everything he saw that could be valuable information to know about of your enemy. He told the Emperor, the location of Rome, it's resources, it's products, and the kind of people found in Rome. You don't normally notice those kinds of things unless you were spying to gain an advantage over a certain enemy. But like I said before, Rome is too far away to be a real threat to China, but Rome could invade the countries that are neighboring China and if China's ally was one of those countries, then China would have had to gone to their aid. The account also gives a vibe that, in my opinion, it is almost like respect. It seems to me that when an Emperor hears about another empire almost as powerful to their own, they either become paranoid and try to stop the other empire from being better than them, or they have a mutual respect for one another until they get in the way of one another and have to fight.