Even though the current financial crisis has badly hit the “Brand America” worldwide, Chinese consumers seems to be still taking in great consideration “America” as a brand, and will probably keep on doing so for a long time, particularly for what regards consumer products.

Recent product quality recalls (ie: the tainted milk scandal) definitely play their part here. However, a key factor driving this sentiment stays in the connotations “USA” carries along in terms of dreams and aspirations of a wealthy life – sentiments that are becoming very dear to the emerging Chinese middle class.

Still, bankruptcy carries a harsh stigma in China. China-based accountants Lehman Brown are apparently considering a change of name, even if they have for long time refused to comply with the request of the famous homonym Wall Street investment bank that is now bankrupted.

Dickson Leung, a senior partner at the firm, said that “the accounting firm's name, the surnames of its US expatriate founders, attracted clients because it sounded very American” and insisted on the fact that the company had not just tried to capitalize on the famous bank's similar moniker. "Following Lehman Brothers bankruptcy prospective clients could see it as unlucky” he admitted.

Indeed, confidence in US financial institutions has plummeted. “Chinese people want to take their money out of Citibank to put it in Bank of China” Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group said.

The current meltdown and episodes like the collapse of Enron, amid some 40 billion dollars in hidden debt, had taken its toll on corporate America's reputation. "People here used to worship the US model, which seemed very successful," Liu Shengjun, assistant director of China Europe International Business School's Case Development Centre has also reported "the image of US financial institutions is now a lot worse"