Picture, if you will, a world economy in which all the big industrial and extractive companies were owned by the ­Chinese state, and merged into one company per industry. Things could never go that far, maybe, but they have certainly moved in that direction, and it is stated ­Chinese government policy to go further.

Extending its reach

So what will it look like if that development reaches its maximum point, with one shipowning company, one energy major, one big miner, one steelmaker, one civil construction company and so on, all ultimately controlled in Beijing?

Maybe the lack of competition would create massive inefficiencies in production...