Whether or not you do business in China, you can't ignore it. Everyone knows the superlatives: how it consumes a huge percentage of global resources—25 percent of the world's steel and 50 percent of the world's cement, for example; how it is home to some of the largest companies on Earth, four of which cracked the most recent Fortune Global 500 list; how its economy will soon rival those of leading countries such as France and the United Kingdom.

China's impressive growth has enhanced its global influence and, some would argue, helped shift the world's balance of power toward Asia. The country's vast production capacity and appetite for resources are changing the way its own people and people everywhere live and work.

That is why so much attention recently has been focused on the pace and direction of the Chinese economy. Japan, for instance, owes its recovery in large part to China's buoyant domestic market; China is now its second-largest trading partner, after the United States. Likewise, China has assumed an increasingly important role in the global supply chain, so that economic development and change there immediately affect operations in companies around the world. Retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores are...