Call me mad but this crisis is good for China.
It is also good for China's role and responsibilities in the world.
Yesterday, we upgraded our gross domestic product forecasts for China for 2009 and 2010; we are now looking for 8.3 and 10.9 per cent, respectively, up from 6 and 9 per cent.
Why the optimism? It was clear that the massive rise in exports, the mainstay of the China growth model until 2008, was not sustainable. At one stage in late 2007, Chinese exports to the US alone were about 12 per cent of total GDP. This meant that exports would suffer badly in the event of something going wrong with demand in the US, and the risk of a protectionist backlash.