The implications of this are enormous. I recently met some laid off Australian miners who suggested their salvation would be Chinese equity in their mining firm. With huge foreign cash reserves that may well be possible however I suspect China might like to send its own underemployed people to occupy middle management positions. In that case they may be unwelcome.

It is perhaps fortunate that many have country relatives to return to. The fact this must breed discontentment is in the old song 'how you gonna keep them down on the farm'. Quite apart from lowered demand for Chinese goods in the West there has also been talk of carbon import levies if they refused to take Kyoto to the next step. However it seems the Chinese have partly pre-empted that with export taxes on themselves. It was rumoured that China could sustain its recent level of coal use for just a few more years, effectively confiscating production from Vietnam.

I can't guess what will happen next except we'll all have to tighten our belts.

If China repatriates some of the huge amount of money it invested abroad, in order to finance growth within their own country, - it may further add to everyone's woes.