Scarcely a generation ago, China produced only 5,000 passenger cars annually. These days, China is the world’s second-largest car market, and rumours swirl ceaselessly about a Chinese carmaker buying Chrysler or General Motors. It is a remarkable transformation and one that cannot be halted, even by the global economic recession.

China’s car industry has seen sales slump from the stratospheric double-digit growth of recent years. But car industry analysts are still expecting high single-digit growth for 2008 and possibly 2009 as well. Much of the rest of the global car industry would be happy to see such numbers.