Additionally, Thailand, at the basic end of production--it is the world's largest rice exporter, for example--has to watch the emergence of low-wage Vietnam as a "China plus one" world supply source.

FORBES: A Mightier Baht

Much has been made recently of the China-plus-one strategy.

FORBES: China's Untapped Potential Far Outweighs Its Competitors

If one plus one always equaled two in China, then yes, those things could happen.

FORBES: The Myth of the Chinese Consumer

Over the next decade, the impact of women on the global economy -- as producers, entrepreneurs, employees and consumers -- will be at least as significant as that of China's or India's one-billion-plus populations, if not greater.

CNN: Why women will impact global economy as much as China

Successive presidents or their officials have visited China, accompanied by business delegations eager to sell more to the one-billion-plus Chinese, and have tried to persuade the Chinese to sign contracts and make trade concessions.

ECONOMIST: How not to deal with China

And, for the moment, "Dutch Disease" is a real concern: a hollowing out of Brazil's industrial sector, as the boom in commodities (plus a hugely competitive China) gradually prices them out of world markets, and the Brazilian one.

BBC: Brazil: No reverso