Earlier this month, the two biggest telecommunications companies in the world - Vodafone and China Mobile - created a consortium to bid for mobile licences in Burma.
The commitment of China to an export-led growth model, matched by a willingness from rich-world consumers to keep spending, created persistent surpluses in China in particular.
In Shenzhen, near Hong Kong, tens of thousands of young engineers have created a Silicon Valley-like youth culture in the high-tech companies that thrive in China's southern Guangdong province.