China's car companies 'must learn' GM lesson

"General Motors will go bankrupt in the next 10 to 20 years and the US market will become a desert for the automotive industry." This unlikely prediction was made by Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Automobile Holdings, back in 2001 during a heated automotive forum in Beijing.

At the time, Li's words infuriated representatives of both GM and Ford, a number of whom stormed out of the meeting in protest. Just how seriously Li, himself, took his off-the-wall prediction at the time will, perhaps, never be known, however, its accuracy, eight years later, is now beyond dispute.

On June 1, the humiliated US automaker finally filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to the US government. This historic move made it the largest ever US industrial company to file for bankruptcy and the fourth largest US company overall to make such a move - behind only Worldcom, Washington Mutual and Lehman Brothers.