Uh-oh. News of GM’s upcoming demise has reached China. On the Kübler-Ross grief chart, GM China’s emotional cycle has departed from denial, probably hit some (internalized) anger and is now in the bargaining phase. Depression, testing and acceptance will follow in due course.

GM China called a press conference and trotted out Kevin Wale, president of GM China Group himself. He put on a brave face: Even if General Motors meets the worse-case scenario—bankruptcy, its operations in China won’t be affected and will expand further as they have been making profits and have abundant funds and technologies, Wale bragged according to Gasgoo. Customers and dealers in China are rightly beginning to wonder how GM China will fare if the mothership gets torpedoed or broken up.

Less than two weeks ahead of the 2009 Shanghai auto show, GM China boss Kevin Wale told Chinese reporters that GM China will be just fine. No reason for concerns. Actually, their “future in China is bright,” Wale said while Reuters reports that GM is being told by its new DC masters to prepare for a fast surgical bankruptcy “in as little as two weeks.”

What, me worry, says Wale. “GM China has abundant fund supply to ensure its future investment and expansion. Even if a worse-case scenario happens to GM, its Chinese ventures will continue to have the global technical and product support of GM. All this is beyond any question.” Forget the gloomy talk: General Motors Corp plans to double its vehicle sales in China to more than 2 million units by 2013. GM plans to add more than 30 new or upgraded models in China in the next five years.

My Chinese friends say there is a somewhat nasty expression for such a posturing: “Da zhong lian chong pang zi.” Roughly translated it means to hit your own face so hard that it gets swollen and you look bigger and stronger. I have to take their word for it.