SHANGHAI — Ford may be standing taller than General Motors in Detroit these days — flush with cash while its rival is forced to go repeatedly to Washington, hat in hand, seeking government bailouts. But in China the tables are turned.

G.M. is a powerful presence here with 8 to 10 percent of the market for cars, minivans and sport utility vehicles, making it the second-largest automaker in China for such vehicles, passed only by Volkswagen. One of G.M.’s local joint ventures, Wuling, dominates the sale of bare-bones pickups and vans, hugely popular in rural areas, with nearly half the market.

And in discussions about a possible bankruptcy to break G.M. into a “good G.M.” of viable businesses and a “bad G.M.” composed of the rest of the automaker, the company’s Chinese operations are consistently mentioned as a candidate for the good G.M.

Unlike the gas guzzlers churned out by G.M.’s North American operation, the company’s China division has emphasized fuel-sipping models in the last decade. Two weeks ago, G.M. set a target of roughly doubling sales in China within five years, to two million vehicles a year.