Roar of the East being heard

Ganeshan Wignaraja, director of research with the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) in Tokyo, says the rise of corporate China will have a profound impact on the international business environment, similar to the rise of corporations in Japan and later South Korea.

"Although Japan had established corporations before World War II, everything had to be rebuilt from scratch after the war. So the capacity was already there and it just had to be rebuilt and a new generation trained," he says.

"Fifty years ago, Japanese products had a reputation for being unreliable and inferior to those in North America and Europe. Today, that is no longer the case. Brands such as Sony Corp, Toyota Motor Corp, Canon Inc, Nikon Corp, Toshiba Corp, Fujitsu Ltd and Sharp Corp are household names, not only in Asia but throughout the world."

A number of South Korean brands have followed a similar trajectory, with Samsung Group, LG Electronics and Hyundai Motor Corp becoming household names with a reputation for quality products.

Now, Wignaraja says, the same thing is happening with Chinese companies, although he admits that there has been a time lag in these firms acquiring the technical and managerial competence to penetrate world markets.

"But you do have Chinese companies making their mark," he says.

Hinterkoerner from RBS believes the Chinese auto industry will be on a par with the Japanese and South Koreans within 10 to 20 years, if not sooner.

"China has all the ingredients for becoming a very successful automaker. For a start it has a very big home market that is expanding, a skilled workforce and is acquiring the R&D (research and development) needed to go to the next level," he says.

"It won't be long before you see Chinese cars being sold in the European market, for example, much the same way as cars from South Korea. It is only a question of time."

But it is not just the auto sector that Chinese firms are buying into. Last year, the State-owned Bright Food Group bought a majority stake in the British food company Weetabix Ltd.

Then, in May this year, China's largest meat processor Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd agreed to buy Smithfield Foods Inc in the United States in a deal worth $4.7 billion. This was the biggest Chinese takeover of an American company to date, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Zhu adds that "for the Chinese it is not a question of money, just price".

As the global financial crisis has left many European and North American companies facing difficulties, Chinese companies with deep pockets are in a strong position.

Does this mean the beginning of a decline of the Western-dominated corporate world?