CARS: "Chinese aim to be king of the road: Beijing motor show; The home market is massive and local carmakers want to dominate it," by Patti Waldmeir, Financial Times, 22 April 2010.

CARS: "China embraces freedom of the road: Cars are liberating the country as they did in the US in the 1950s," by Patti Waldmeir, Financial Times, 23 April 2010.

Stat I've long used: cars per 1,000 people in China stands at about 30. In the US, it's somewhere between 7-800.

Yes, most Chinese automakers stand way behind the Western ones in terms of technology, quality and service, but local brands dominate in the West and Japan, and they will eventually in China too.

Over 90% of the cars sold in Japan are Japanese. It's roughly half for Germany and the U.S. In India and China, it's only one-third.

The Chinese brands will come to dominate as the highly fractured industry consolidates, like it did in the US in the 1920s.

And then those new models will start showing up over here too.

Meanwhile, China's rapid-fire development of a US-style car culture continues apace. Their version of our interstate system is about a decade away from being realized. This is the first time in China's five millennia that ordinary people have had the freedom of individual mobility.

Of course, this will have no impact on the population's relationship with the government. Just look at how conservative America got after the 1950s.