Seven Ways China Might Surprise Us

While most of us are hyper-focused on the financial meltdown, McKinsey & Co.'s man in Shanghai has been thinking instead of ways China might surprise us in coming years.

Gordon Orr, a McKinsey director, has come up with a list of seven possibilities although he doubts that all will take place. The list:

1. China announces that by 2020 half of its cars will be electric and develops the technology to make it happen.
2. China buys a 50-year lease on an entire geographic region of Mexico so it can erect factories for the North American market.
3. Showing shoddy construction practices a major office building collapses in Beijing's central business district.
4. A leading Chinese firm tries to buy one or two major U.S. technology firms.
5. All of China's telecom is consolidated.
6. The English Premier League football association buys the Chinese Super League for the enjoyment of Chian's emerging middle class.
7. Taiwanese animousities abate and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China merges with Taiwan's ChinaTrust Commercial Bank.