Hummer To China

                               
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News that an obscure Chinese company has reached a tentative agreement to buy bankrupt General Motors' Hummer unit has people here pondering the larger meaning of Chinese ownership of the mother of all gas guzzlers.

The news has propelled Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. onto the radar screen of auto enthusiasts worldwide. And it underscores China's growing economic might at a time when U.S. industrial prowess is flagging.

China is already the U.S. government's largest creditor and the largest foreign provider of manufactured goods to the U.S. Now a Chinese firm is the first to salvage a piece of a fallen U.S. titan -- a point of no small pride for many in China.

The new owners are planning to push sales of the gargantuan vehicle here, where it is already a status symbol for China's newly rich.
The brand "is synonymous with adventure, freedom and exhilaration, and we plan to continue that heritage," said Yang Yi, chief executive of Tengzhong.

But for others, the Hummer is a bad omen, the epitome of American excess before soaring gas prices and the housing collapse humbled the nation's psyche. As with H1N1 flu, they hope it isn't catching.

"To me, the car makes me think about the generation born in the 1980s that only believes in hedonism and shows us the bad consequences of consumerism," said Zhou Xiao Zheng, a sociologist at Beijing's Renmin University. "I dearly wish we only adopted the good things from the U.S. and not the bad things."