Doing the Samba, the Chinese Way

China has been dominating the global news, on many fronts. Two more stories today illustrate its influence.

Op-Ed Columnist - Their Moon Shot and Ours - NYTimes.com: "China is doing moon shots. Yes, that’s plural. When I say “moon shots” I mean big, multibillion-dollar, 25-year-horizon, game-changing investments. China has at least four going now: one is building a network of ultramodern airports; another is building a web of high-speed trains connecting major cities; a third is in bioscience, where the Beijing Genomics Institute this year ordered 128 DNA sequencers — from America — giving China the largest number in the world in one institute to launch its own stem cell/genetic engineering industry; and, finally, Beijing just announced that it was providing $15 billion in seed money for the country’s leading auto and battery companies to create an electric car industry, starting in 20 pilot cities. In essence, China Inc. just named its dream team of 16-state-owned enterprises to move China off oil and into the next industrial growth engine: electric cars."

BRIC breaking: Brazil's China syndrome - The Economic Times: "Brazil: Even among emerging market powerhouses, Brazil and China stand out.

With enviably strong growth rates, the largest economies in Latin America and Asia have come to represent the shift in global clout from developed to developing economies. And as they've grown, the two countries have become more intertwined than ever.

But the relationship, while mutually beneficial, is hardly equal. The sheer size of the Chinese economy means its needs have begun altering Brazil's, in ways both salutary and worrisome. The lopsided relationship underscores the profound challenges that China's emergence as an industrial force poses for developing nations.
China, the world's second largest economy, is now Brazil's top trading partner, surpassing the United States for the first time last year. Brazilian imports from China jumped 12-fold from 2000 to 2009, and exports went up a whopping 18 times. China consumed almost 14 percent of Brazil's exports in 2009 -- and sent back almost 13 percent of Brazilian imports.

The Middle Kingdom has gone beyond merely influencing the Brazilian economy -- the world's eighth largest -- and has begun reshaping it, bringing bonanzas to some industries and burdens to others.

..."

India, on the other hand, is still fighting the reality and the perception of it, especially the reality of poor governance, lack of discipline and work ethic.

Games Official Angers India With Hygiene Comment - NYTimes.com: "India had hoped the Commonwealth Games, a quadrennial athletic competition among nations of the former British Empire, would serve as a public relations vehicle to show off the economic progress that has made the country a rising power. Instead, the world is witnessing an ugly spectacle of bureaucratic dysfunction that only confirms the image of governmental ineffectiveness that Indian leaders hoped to dispel.