When the global financial crisis hit, many pinned their hopes on China to lead the world out of its economic quagmire. In industries such as automobiles and telecoms, Chinese consumers buoyed sales enough to compensate the decline in Western markets. In the Asian region, however, many have come to regard their giant neighbor with skepticism. China’s economic rise, anchored in extraordinarily cheap labor and low production costs, makes it hard for small Asian countries to compete on the global stage. State-owned Chinese enterprises have mushroomed in many Asian countries in recent years. Chinese investors were welcome overseas for the jobs they would provide their host countries, but locals soon realized the difficulty in competing with cheap Chinese labor. ......