Thanks for all the info, Shanghaiceltic. I believe the Chinese Ambassador in the UK has at least been up to Morecambe Bay.

JTT, what's scary about China punching its weight? It's got far more than a billion people, compared with 450 million for the EU (that's after enlargement), and they are all governed by one central administration, like the US but unlike the EU. It's not a development born out of a command economy. It's born out of embracing capital markets, just like the west always urged them to do.

I guess you're scared because the days of the west living off the rest are numbered.