A little perspective
According to the BBC, the Chinese economy just surpassed the UK economy in size (as measured by GDP converted to dollars*), becoming the fourth largest national economy in the world, behind the US, Japan, and Germany. If I remember right from my international political economy class, that puts China's economy at just slightly greater in size than the economy of the state of California. Any thoughts?
*Converting to dollars makes the figure a bit inaccurate, because the exchange rate is skewed. Officially, you can get 8 RMB with one dollar, but 8 RMB buys much more in China than one dollar does in the US.
*Converting to dollars makes the figure a bit inaccurate, because the exchange rate is skewed. Officially, you can get 8 RMB with one dollar, but 8 RMB buys much more in China than one dollar does in the US.