A Reasonable Insight into China’s Economic Power

Which country is the largest economy in the world? Not long ago, the famous U.S. research institution Pew Research Center held a survey in 21 countries. 41% of the respondents thought china was the largest economy while 40% of them thought the role belonged to the United States. In 2008, the same survey got the result that 22% voted for China and 45% chose the United States.

From 2008 to 2012, China witnessed a successful Olympic event and an impressive Expo event. The GDP of China surpassed its neighbor Japan. In these four years, western countries represented by the United States had a tough time due to the financial crisis. Pew Research Center’s survey reveals that China’s international profile is increasing as a result of its fast economic growth. Chinese people deserve the praise and respect but they should not be blinded by the result and keep a clear mind when it comes to these figures.

Is the Chinese economy really as strong as the United States? In terms of the GDP growth rate, China had a more than 10% annual growth rate in the past ten years, much higher than the United States in the same period. China is able to catch up with the United States if given enough time. However, the status quo is that China’s GDP is only half of the United States and the GDP per capita in this country only equals one ninth of the American’s. Obviously, it is too early to say that China shares the equal position with the United States in economy at this moment.

Moreover, there are “unrealistic parts” in the decreased gap between China and the United States. From 2001 to 2011, the GDP gap between the United States and China decreased from eight times to 2.1 times, which is attributed to the real increase of Chinese economy and the factors like inflation and appreciation of RMB.

Nowadays, the United States is still unbeatable in technologies and innovations. The cores of current three technological reforms – large data pools, smart production and wireless network – are all within the United States. In comparison, China is a big manufacturing country in the world, but it is still struggling to move upward from the low- end part of the global industrial chain. Some scholars believe that China could only become a real powerful economy when it has a large number of selfowned brands and core technologies.

The laurel as the “Word’s Largest Economy” is good, but it is more like a burden for China. Someone advocates that“China will rule the world”, which is sensational and unrealistic. It is not necessary to exaggerate the GDP of China or any implications behind it no matter from the support or misgiving for China.

Of course, China should not look down upon itself. As the second largest economy, China has done many great jobs in the past 30 years, which could serve as an example for the other emerging countries. There were many doomsayers thinking badly of China’s economy but they were proven wrong as the time went by. This made us believe that China might not go on a smooth and uneven way of development, but it will have higher achievements if it is more efficient in changing the structure and quality of national economic structure and building a scientific and sustainable development path.