China is no longer the sleeping giant of yore. The country is showing its rapidly growing economic clout especially in the trade arena, where it has become the world’s third-largest trading nation.

Southeastern textiles and cotton have seen their once-dominant positions weakened. How these longtime mainstays of the regional economy fare in the future depends on how well they adjust to the global marketplace.

New home construction set a torrid pace for years in the Southeast. But the homebuilding industry has cooled considerably, tempering the vitality of industries that had flourished along with it.