The Great Malls of China

The news that China is now more popular around the world than the United States, according to a Pew Research Center survey, is just the latest Chinese challenge to the American ego. The Chinese are also buying U.S. businesses with hallowed American brand names, such as IBM (its PC unit), and they're bidding for Maytag and Unocal. They're making a lot of what Americans wear, use and buy. They hold a substantial interest in the U.S. future by financing much of the national debt.

And they've even surpassed us in the most characteristic icon of American life: the shopping mall.

[The link below takes you my piece in the Los Angeles Times. The Christian Science Monitor was also going to publish it this week, but it kept getting bumped by London terrorism and Rove terrorism stories.]

The Great Malls of China