According to Thomson Reuters, the market value of Chinese companies currently listed on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stock Market is more than $1.4 trillion.

Last week, U.S. investors learned the hard way that when China sneezes, the U.S. may catch pneumonia. Growth in China is slowing and there are growing fears that its massive overinvestment in real estate and manufacturing plants in recent years has led to unsustainable levels of Chinese business and bank debt. Stock markets in countries which have been major beneficiaries of the China growth story plunged at the end of last week, including a two-day drop of almost 500 points in the U.S.