falling. china has changed, you know. western brands there are rare and the country s own companies now dominate almost every aspect of the human and growing domestic chinese economy. few businesses take their cues from american firms anyone. many young chinese boasted their local versions of google, amazon and facebook are better, faster and more sophisticated than the originals. the country has become its own internally focused universe. the next stage in their strategy is to exploit the leadership vacuum being created by america s retreat on trade. as trump was promising protectionism and threatening to wall off america from its southern neighbor, chinese president made a trip through latin america. his third in four years. he signed over 40 deals and committed billions of dollars of investments in the region.