Charles Freeman, the CSIS Freeman Chair in China Studies, was quoted by the Associated Press, "China Firms Sink Roots Acros

Amid the torrent of clothes, electronics and toys surging out of China comes a little-noticed export: international companies.

For centuries, individual Chinese have sought their fortunes abroad, creating Chinatowns around their restaurants and shops. Now, Chinese firms are going global, pushed by a government turned capitalist, pulled by untapped markets and armed with bundles of money from a thriving economy back home.

"What's scary to think of is when they marry cost consciousness with U.S.-style just-in-time inventory management," says Charles Freeman, a China specialist at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, who recalls talking to a cell phone maker that was storing 100 million headsets behind its factory.

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