NEW YORK — One of the many theories about North Korea which appears to float on thin air goes something like this: China, the one country with real leverage over crazy Kim and his gulag, loves the status quo. Like that guy in your neighborhood who walks around with a pit bull straining against its leash, the Chinese parade their influence on the Pygmy of Pyongyang, as if to remind the neighborhood that without the strong hand of Beijing, Kim Jong-il’s steroid-fed army of Stalinist zealots would run amok all over East Asia.

BANGALORE, India — The Chinese are out to conquer the world, and nowhere is that more obvious than in the India operations of the giant Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer Huawei Technologies. Against the backdrop of deeply rooted suspicion about a Chinese company making inroads in a politically sensitive area like telecom, Chinese employees of Huawei have hit upon a new strategy to win over their subcontinental customers: doing in India as the Indians do.