China's learning on the global power of its economic rule sets

■"China Antitrust Law May Alter Global Acquisitions Landscape," by Andrew Batson, Wall Street Journal, 3 November 2005, p. A11.

■"China Keeps Watch Over Olympic Logo: It Is One Knockoff That's Not Allowed," by Geoffrey A. Fowler, Washington Post, 4 November 2005, p. D5.

China's coming out with a new antimonopoly law that's been years in the making. Because China's integrating its national economy so rapidly with the world's, this will have a huge impact on mergers and acquisitions around the world, which is why the drafting "has attracted an unusual amount of international comment from U.S. and European Union governments and business groups."

Amazing huh? China's not only synching up its internal rule set with that of the global economy, we're now seeing some serious evidence of backwash effects.

So China learns, bit by bit, that it's good to play by the rules, even over such seemingly little things like patent protection.