China's Trifecta

China Ends U.S.’s Reign as Largest Auto Market (Update2)

Jan. 11 (Bloomberg) -- China supplanted the U.S. as the world’s largest auto market after its 2009 vehicle sales jumped 46 percent, ending more than a century of American dominance that started with the Model T Ford.

China becomes biggest exporter, edging out Germany

BEIJING (AP) - Already the biggest auto market and steel maker, China edged past Germany in 2009 to become the top exporter, yet another sign of its rapid rise and the spread of economic power from West to East.

China banks eclipse US rivals

Chinese banks have cemented their position as the most highly valued financial institutions, taking four of the top five slots in a ranking of banks’ share prices as a multiple of their book values.

And it even looks like they are making their moves to corner the market on corruption.

Corrupt China officials pocket 50 billion

Thousands of officials have fled China over the past 30 years with some 50 billion dollars in public funds, state media said Monday, as the government scrambles to stem the tide of corruption.

As many as 4,000 officials have disappeared, using criminal gangs, mainly in the United States and Australia, to launder their ill-gotten gains, buy real estate and set up false identities, the Global Times said.

A joint task force involving 15 Chinese ministries has been set up to choke off graft in government ranks, the paper said.

Anyone else remember the heady days of Richard Nixon opening up the then closed communist society of China?

1972 Nixon visit to China

U.S. President Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to the People's Republic of China was an important step in formally normalizing relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China. It marked the first time a U.S. president had visited the PRC, who at that time considered the U.S. one of its staunchest foes. The visit has become a metaphor for an unexpected or uncharacteristic action by a politician.

The Nixon visit of 1972 ought to be a metaphor for demonstrating how to easy it was to destroy the most powerful capitalist economy on the planet, in thirty years or less. And it all began in 1972 with the Nixon Mao moment.