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CHINESE PEOPLE are becoming increasingly obsessed with speaking English, and efforts to improve English-language proficiency mean that at some stage this year, the world’s most populous nation will become the world’s largest English-speaking country. Two billion people are learning English worldwide, and a very large percentage of them are in China, writes CLIFFORD COONAN

During a recent reporting trip to Kashgar, in the restive western province of Xinjiang where foreigners, especially journalists, are not especially welcome, I was approached by a plainclothes policeman in the lobby of my hotel, who identified himself, sat down and asked me, in English: “Do you feel safe here?”. My heart sank. This is a standard opening line when officialdom comes knocking in China, although it is usually delivered in Chinese, and I readied myself for a trip down to the station, or at least a lengthy interrogation about what I was doing in this hotbed of separatism at China’s westernmost extreme.