The new Buick LaCrosse luxury sedan, which is helping revitalise GM’s fortunes in the US, has a back seat largely designed for Chinese entrepreneurs. Levi Strauss, the oldest American jeans name, came to China to launch a new cheap jeans brand to sell around the world.
As China gains superpower status in global consumer markets – the biggest vehicle market, second largest luxury market, the superlatives go on and on – its consumers are increasingly influencing what the rest of us buy.
Nationalistic US consumers may not like the idea that their cars are increasingly built to please Chinese tycoons, but that is the reality of a world whose automotive centre of gravity has shifted decisively to the east.