Can China cushion the blow?

China's surging economy may be able to cushion the blow from a slowdown in the U.S. CNN's John Vause reports.

Like so many of China’s growing middle class, Pan Honglin is cashed up and ready to spend, he wants to buy this fully-loaded SUV, price tag including taxes,45,000 US dollars. But he will have to wait, the salesman told me I can’t have it for more than 3 months, he says, there are orders for this car until April.

Chinese consumers wealthier than ever are spending more than ever, helping to drive this economy like never before. For five years now, the economy has been growing at double-digit speed, so fast the government has struggled to slow it. So a drop in demand from the US, China’s No1 customer for exports would be seen here as not necessarily a bad thing.

It would tone down Chinese trade surplus a bit, it would tone down inflationary pressures a bit and it would tone down overall growth a bit.

Many exporters are feeling the pinch like this Beijing textile company, manager Yang Aiwu tells me her sales to the US are down but she adds "we’re doing better business with Europe, Russia and Australia", some economists argue China is now so robust that a drop in US exports won’t have a major impact at all. ”

The thing is what we’ve seen in recent years is significantly growth not all the way, by any means been driven by exports it’s been domestic demand, It's been consumption and investment

Investment in all those things China didn’t build for 50 years. Roads, airports and skyscrapers, lots of skyscrapers. in recent years an estimated 40 billion US dollars has been spent rebuilding Beijing alone.

In fact, some economists now argue that China’s economy is so big and getting bigger, that while it may not be able to save the world from a US-led recession, Chances are it will soften the blow. John Vause, CNN, Beijing.