Forecasters spend more time pondering China's future than probably any other market in the world. When will it become the world's largest consumer market? By 2015. When will it become the world's largest investor in research and development? By 2025. And then eventually it will become the world's largest economy by 2035.

These are significant milestones on China's path but it's the trajectory of growth and economic development that rightly attracts all the attention. However, turning to the China of today rather than tomorrow, China can already lay claim to being one of the world's leading capital markets - if not in fact its most important market.

China's stock market capitalization passed that of Japan's earlier this year, topping $3 trillion, making it the world's second-largest stock market. It could surpass the US within the next five years. Local bond issues in China regularly hit in excess of $1 billion equivalent and it is now the world's largest domestic bond market for corporate and financial issuance.