Napoleon said: 'China is a sleeping giant, let her sleep.' Well, it is sleeping no longer. Its success has become a cliche. But the fear that its success would vacuum up and hollow out the other Asian success stories has been proved wrong: Southeast Asia is now a vital platform in the global supply line.
China's growth has lifted Japan out of its economic stupor and contributed more to global growth than the United States, the EU or Japan over the past few years. China's US$650 billion reserves are being invested offshore.
The west, which strongly pushed for a more open investment regime in China as a condition for its entry into the World Trade Organisation, now faces an aggressive, even bold, Beijing on a buying spree.
Twenty years ago, the fear was of a Japanese takeover of the US, but that fear was misplaced. The big difference now is that Chinese investors are frequently state-owned - while, as one US senator noted, Japan was small and an ally.
What has caused the most concern in the US is CNOOC's bid for Unocal. The offer caught the attention of Washington's ruling elite, and symbolises the new economic fault line. US Congressmen and senators have expressed overwhelming alarm, but is this all overdone? In a word, yes.
The US has partnerships with many state-owned oil companies, and Unocal represents just 1 per cent of American oil consumption. The biggest investors in the US last year were Switzerland (US$878 billion) and Japan (US$431 billion). Beijing invested only US$8 billion, while the US invested US$105 billion in China.
But trade figures and investment perceptions are now out of date: they represent an old reality, from before our more borderless world. What is a trade surplus or deficit? What happens when Dell sells a computer made in China, with some input from elsewhere?
