Now, alongside its washing-machine factory in Qingdao, there rises a pharmaceutical plant, whose synergies even Haier's bosses seem at a loss to explain.

ECONOMIST: China and the chaebol | The

And Whirlpool's washing-machine factory now makes appliances under contract for Kelon, which sells them under its own brand, a reversal of the usual hierarchy between western and Chinese firms.

ECONOMIST: Infatuation��s end