Average living standards in China are still only a sixth and in India a fourteenth of those in America at PPP exchange rates, but the gap is already much smaller than it was and is closing fast.

The gap narrowed because of a prolonged slump in mainland stock markets until 2005 but has returned with gusto after a rapid improvement in investor sentiment towards the Shanghai exchange.

Irony, put simply, is a gap between words and their meaning, a space across which speaker and listener exchange a knowing wink.