It is funny how some things start to look similar. Back in the mid 1970's due tot he oil shock, there was the move to lots of Japanese cars as they were much more fuel efficient due to their more limited fuel supply. It was said that you could hear the difference as the engines were much quieter.

While it isn't directly from the ongoing oil shock, China has come in with the exact same situation. Their economic/resource limitations forced them to innovate and it has pushed them into a brilliant global position.

I have said for a while that China is repeating Japan's success only time shifted 30-40 years and on a larger scale and this would be another example. But they also seem to following the same path to potential multi decade long stagnation and decline. Don't know how that will pan out but it is just an observation.

You can take any article discussing the future of Japan from the 1980's swap out Japan for China and you will end up with something that reads very close to today's articles about China.

As an aside, going back tot eh first point. It is obscene just how inefficient some of the american vehicles of the 1960's could be. For instance, a 1963 Chrysler Imperial LeBaron would only get about 9 miles per gallon! It weighed 3 tons, was a single gear auto and was the size of a boat that took 5 mintues to walk around. There wasn't any consideration of fuel efficiency or fuel costs because it was the cheapest gasoline would ever be. The only thing they worried about was it being the smoothest ride possible. It was an industry primed for an efficiency take over.