But that could be changing, according to Dru Gladney of the University of Hawaii, an expert on China's Hui.

ECONOMIST: The angry are getting organised

But the church eventually found less sophisticated officials in Huizhou, near Hong Kong, and sold them the idea (one local dignitary at the time was under the impression that Panda was one of America's Big Four car makers, according to Eric Harwit, an expert on China's car industry at the University of Hawaii).

ECONOMIST: South Korean business

Indeed, they would probably have started thinking about differentiation anyway, even had China remained closed to the outside world, says Usha Haley, an expert on Asian business from the University of Tennessee.

ECONOMIST: Asian companies and the China challenge

"There's no question that China is very sensitive to its image, " said Stanley Rosen, an expert on the Chinese film industry, and director of the East Asian Studies Center at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

NPR: Hollywood Yielding To China's Growing Film Clout