Quote from Bolimomo:
Unlike the Mao years, China is not isolated no more. It is tightly connected to the rest of the world.
USA is the biggest country China ships its products to. Now with US being in a recession, consumer spending slow down, China's manufacturing is deeply affected. The raw material companies are affected because demand slows down. The booming industries are in the tourism (hotels) and local housing. Those are funded by money earned in the manufacturing businesses. Those would be slowed down too.
Besides, I am sure many Chinese financial firms had bought the toxic CDOs from Wall Street like many other countries (even Iceland) and they had big losses as well. That's why this round of market decline is so global. No country seems to be able to stand on its own. And... the Chinese holding of US bonds... interest is crap now. Many whammies..
This probably has delayed China's plan of selling its automobiles to the USA market (I heard that it was 2010 that they wanted to start).