When I was a kid, the business fantasy in America was “if we could just sell one Coke to every person in China….……” Of course,, never did the folks in the 1970s dream of what the China/U.S. relationship would be these days, in which American cities are old and decrepit looking compared to almost any major Chinese city (of which there are hundreds).

Starbucks isn’t trying to sell Coke, of course, but they are trying to sell coffee, and they aren’t exactly setting the world on fire, since the oddly-named Luckin is smoking them.