Land of Opportunity - China?

For a new generation, land of opportunity may lie in China, not the US - Article from the NY Times via IHT.

Interesting article.

Key Points:

• 500 US public schools offer Mandarin with 3000 students taking the AP test for Chinese.
  
• 40 million people worldwide are learning Mandarin
• 100,000 foreigners went to China to study Mandarin in 2006. US was third in nations sending people to Learn Mandarin Chinese in China.
  
• Recent Gallup surveys in 13 Asian countries showed some 40 percent expect China to replace the U.S. as the leading superpower within the next 50 years.
• 51,600 studied Mandarin in the US in 2006.
  

Summary:
The article is a good complement to my Why Learn Chinese page. The article has a link to http://www.chinglish.com/, but does not mention Zhongwen which is probably because they had an interview with the owner of Chinglish.com.