It was a bit silly remark. China was desperately poor and thus not an especially big market, despite its huge population. Today it's not quite so ridiculous, notes Nicholas Lardy, a senior fellow at Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. Foreign suppliers are finding China a more attractive market as it becomes more prosperous.
China is the second-largest market in the world for cellphones.
Coca-Cola is the dominant supplier of soft drinks. Kodak provides more than half of the nation's film and photo paper. What's happened is that the Chinese economy has grown - and grown, like Alice when she nibbled on the wrong side of the magic mushroom. The Chinese economy is now a little smaller than that of Britain or France. But within the next two decades, China could become the third-largest economy in the world, after the United States and Japan, reckons Mr. Lardy.