Every few months seems to bring fresh news of a Chinese company buying up a piece of some famous European or American manufacturer. Last year it was TCL, the Chinese television maker, acquiring control of the television business of Thomson SA, the French electronics company. Then Lenovo, the Chinese computer maker, bought IBM’s personal computer business. IBM’s iconic personal-computer business. Earlier this month, Siemens of Germany paid BenQ, a Taiwanese company, to take over its ailing mobile telephone business. And this week, Haier, China’s top appliance maker, announced a $1.3bn offer for Maytag, the troubled US white goods maker.

More such deals are likely as western companies discover the difficulty of competing with China’s rock-bottom manufacturing costs. This will cause many to trumpet – or decry – the coming “Chinese century.”