Second: what would you guess is the trend in global demand for cars? Now here’s the part that matters for this series: North America does not compete with China as three separate countries. A car is not “made in one place.”In North America, it’s assembled through a supply chain that zig-zags across borders. This is also why the “Mexico exports cars to the U.S., therefore Mexico is stealing jobs” argument is — at best — incomplete. Now, zoom out: if North America is this integrated, why does China matter so much?