India, Dec. 15 -- A small but significant item of news came and went in the first week of this month without so much as a ripple. It should have dominated the front pages, prompted emergency debates, and made every Indian pause and reflect on the direction in which the world-and our own nation-are moving. Instead, it vanished beneath the weight of more sensational, less consequential stories.

The news was this: China's trade surplus crossed the one-trillion-dollar mark in the first eleven months of this year. That is approximately ?90 trillion-a figure so astronomical that even economists must pause and catch their breath. Put it in the language of the common citizen, and it becomes even more unbelievable: China exported goods worth over...