The emergence of China as an economic superpower

Last year, China imported more than 139,000 sedans from across the globe, a 25% increase from the previous year. This is a total of more than $5 billion dollars in imported luxury cars. Although this is an enormous increase of 25%, in comparison, the amount of cars exported by China's vehicle manufacturers doubled year-on-year. China, the third largest automotive producer in the world, after Japan and the US, saw its total output grow by more than 20% in 2007.

The three largest sources of sedan imports into China is, in 2007:

1. Germany
2. Japan
3. USA

Funnily enough, Germany topped both Japan and USA, while both of the latter countries obviously produce at a larger volume than the European nation (take Toyota and GM for example). Most likely reason is that rich Chinese people choose BMW and Benz and Audi over Lexus and such, while less well off Chinese people choose domestically produced models over overseas models.

Do you own an Audi? I see a lot around my neighborhood.