Add Mindspeed to the list of people happy about that. The company announced today it was adding an extra million to the upside of its latest quarterly forecast thanks to orders from the People's Republic tied to the wireless upgrade and to one of the companies leading the build out— Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

Years ago, Huawei came to prominence when Cisco through a spotlight on the similarities between its router software and Cisco's crown jewel IOS. Now China's cellular ramp may give the expanding Huawei all the cred it might ever want in the service provider market. Chip providers, no doubt, are lining up at the doors in Shenzhen of the rising comms OEM and its neighbor ZTE, while Cisco peers jealously across the Pacific.

Throw into this stew the focus VCs have been putting on China and the country's vast holdings of U.S. bonds and this recession might turn into a pretty good thing for Beijing.