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Is there something we can learn from China’s double-digit growth amidst the financial and economic crisis gripping the world? In contrast, the United States – from whom we take our policy cues – has piled up debts almost equal to its $14.25 trillion gross domestic product; unemployment is running high. Along with the other big capitalist countries, the US today is uncertain how and when recovery will come about.
This year China surpassed Japan to become the world’s second largest economy next to the US. China’s per capita income, according to the World Bank, rose from $410 in 1975 to $6,567 in 2009. GDP is well over $5 trillion and international reserves are at $2.45 trillion.
Most American economists assume that China’s rapid growth has been due to its adoption of capitalist economic principles in lieu of socialism. The US welcomed China’s entry into the World Trade Organization, thinking it would then have to follow the WTO’s US-designed rules. But instead, China joined the group of developing countries in resisting US pressures, calling for reforms in the WTO, and stalling further liberalization of trade and investments that had done harm to their economies.