China has 1.3 billion citizens. The People's Daily reports amongst them there are 90,000 foreigners working in China. That's a low base for all the hype about China being the next big thing, especially if you consider that many of these foreigners are likely to be English teachers. Are overseas companies relying more on local labour or is foreign investment not translating into people on the ground? Or are these numbers wrong? Could there be an army of illegal Western immigrants in China, secretly beavering away in such menial jobs as management?

In other globalisation news, China has responded to massive pressure over the liberalisation of textiles quotas by imposing export duties. Silly me. I thought abolishing quotas was all about free trade and allowing comparitive advantage to work. This could still all work out - if the level of taxes is lower than China's cost advantage then China will still take its fair share of world trade in textiles. Otherwise it's just postponing the inevitable.