Featuring more than 1100 flashing new vehicles, the Beijing Auto Show is now among the largest in the world. Car News Web Magazine editor Tycho De Feyter says it’s an important show case of China’s economic clout.

“Chinese auto industry really wants to show off. They want to show what they have. They want to show their new development. They want to show their new cars. So this is very important.”

With annual sales projected to top 30 million by 2020, automakers are increasingly turning to China to drive global revenues. General Motors is opening up 600 new dealerships. And Ford Motor’s Asia Chief John Hinrichs says construction of two manufacturing plants will double Ford’s production capacity there.

“China is a big part of our growth plan as well as the largest market in the world and the great potential opportunity for Ford to grow our business even further as part of our plan to sell 8 million vehicles annually by 2015 around the world.”

With the recent Beijing directive to have 5 million hybrid and electric vehicles on the road by 2020, many see China as a lucrative market for green technology. Among them, Nissan Motor’s Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn:

“As leaders of the zero emission and EV cars in the world, we have to bring our technology and bring our products. The Chinese want us to put it under a Chinese name. We selected Venusia. So you are going to see a lot of electric cars with Nissan technology coming under the Venusia name.”

Not to be out done, Europe’s largest auto maker Volkswagen is investing $ 400 million to build new manufacturing plants in China. And Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche says Mercedes Benz is expanding its line up to target Chinese buyers.

“First of all, there’s no stronger brand than our Mercedes Brand with the three pointed star. Secondly we are at the middle of our product offensive. We will add 10 new vehicles in our portfolio, plus replacing the ones which exist .”

Despite the slowdown in overall sales from previous years, industrial experts say the growing ranks of Chinese millionaires continue to fuel double digit increases in the sales of the sport utility vehicles and luxury automobiles.