China is the world's dominant manufacturing and hard-engineering power — best-in-class in batteries, optics, metallurgy and factory automation, and in control of raw-material feedstocks — while the US has hollowed out its own engineering/manufacturing capacity and is now strategically dependent on China.

The aspirational-glamour luxury lifestyle epitomized by Chanel and Gucci is ascendant, and the brands that define it will thrive.