So why is CHINA going to put the breaks on its growth?

It would seem to me that China may want to slow down it's growth, because their currency is undervalued with the world economy, and the income of its workers do not really provide better standard of living for most of their countrymen. When they continue to earn a few cents on the dollar, they are unable to buy foreign products, so their currency becomes meaningless in the world markets. They must balance growth with inflation, competition, and the benefits/rewards for its workers. Very little benefit have been transfered to the workers in China's economy.

of course, good point...

and I guess that will cool off anyone else (from the rest of the world) who has raw materials to sell to China.

Just how big is China on the world economic stage...
I'm starting to suspect that the world follows their lead these days...

So say for example…ummm…you could get a good idea about the future price of silver (used in industrial electronics) …by knowing Chinas' requirement trend for the next year?

Of course.



GDP is about $US6 trillion. Second largest behind the USA ($US10 trillion).
The world doesn't follow their lead yet, but they will.



Not really. China is only just over 10% of the world economy. If it was a commodity that China used proportionally more of you would have SOME idea about future prices..... but not much.

Wow! ...amazing data.

on the last point...do you think the influence will be disproportionate to the 10% slice...
simply because China is the new kid on the block...so it has centre stage at the moment...

and the absolutely unbelievable way it can provide reasonable quality products for an minute unit cost..

it's always the guy who can offer the lowest prices that controls the rest?

I wonder if there's any idealogical issues there? Adopting capitalist ideas in a communist regime.

Give that man a prize!

you have hit the nail on the head i think.

The chinese civilization is old..
really old...

don't think this ripple in time will even cause it to skip a beat.

Chinese system is not communist. In actual fact it is rather fashist. One party rule, lots of government control. State fuels the industry with orders etc, controls and directs economy - just like in nazi Germany.

Basically one party rule combined with essentially capitalist system you get a fashist state.

USSR was very different, even they didn call themself communist, that was only a goal.

I find this very intersting Adrian, can you point me to where you got those figures from? I Googled 'GDP values' and got 474,000 hits...

US GDP is over 10 trillion, while Chinese is unlikely to be as high as 6.
Though there are different ways to measure GDP.

If you measure Chinese GDP in US dollars it will be about 1.5 trill
e.g GDP of UK is around 1.8.

However, if you measure it in real terms it might be around 5-6 trill,
purchasing power parity GDP. Some chinese worker might be only paid 20 bux a month but he can buy all he needs try to survive a day for $20 in NY.

Also chinese currency is not fully convertable its not traded and therefore it makes it more difficult to estimate GDP.

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ch.html

nexz.

yup,

I can believe that.

the old power structures passed on from ancient times would possibly survive in some form waiting to re assert themselves.

wilsos' main idea that it is a clash in "the ways of doing things" that is causing the slow down... has great merit.

Apologies everybody. I typed billion instead of trillion.

I have edited the post.

Grand Duke, I got the stat's from the same place nexz linked to.

Thanks, Adrian. The CIA site is VERY interesting.

thanks Adrian...Grand Duke is very interesting (the CIA)..

but James brown....he is downright Funkyyyyyy.

Trying to compare the economies of China against those of the US and UK are comparing apples and garlic. GDP is the wrong measure of a countries economic strength. Although China's GDP is 6 trillion dollars, per capita income is only $4,700 compared to the US at $36,300 and the UK at $25,500. The standard of living for most Chinese are comparable to third world countries. The living standards for most Americans and Brits are at the top of the heap; even the poorest in our country has a higher standard of living than most in China - IMHO.

4.700 $USD in China is like 25.000 in the UK. True, these are very different countries to compare. Absolute majority of Chinese never make these 5 grand a year. However there are 50 million wealthy chinese, comparable to population of Britain. Visit Cambridge - Oxford Uk and you will see a lot of rich chinese kids studying there.



Yeah but just like I said there are plenty of people there who live just like Americans or brits if not better. Difficult to achieve equally great living standards in country of 1.2 bill ppl.

How about this, if China was consuming per capita same amount of resources as the US or Britain World economy wouldnt be able to sustain it..

nexz, No doubt that even though as a percentage of the total population, the middle class is small in comparison to it's capitalistic brothers in the US and the UK. If we're talking about the current comparisons, than my opinion pretty much speaks for itself. However, if we're talking about future potential, I think China will surpass the US and the UK sometime in the future. The reason it will be slow to reach that penacle is that the percentage of high school children continuing on to university is still relatively small. When I first visited China in the early 1990s, only ten percent were able to contine their education into college, and many of those were restricted to teaching and other government mandated subjects. When I visited China in 2000, the percentage of high school students continuing on to college increased to 30 percent with more choices made by the students. During the decade from the early nineties to 2000, China has really developed their social overhead capital - their transportation system and communication has improved dramatically - all necessary to expand their economy. Yes, they have made some mistakes, but the improvements have been dramatic and fast. As China expands its educational opportunities, so will their economy expand. Many countries, including the US and Japan, are investing in China to expand their manufacturing and technology base. It's only a matter of time that the average Chinese will benefit from their economic growth.

We see plenty of them studying here too. I know what it costs for international students to study in Australia, and while I suspect that it's probably lot's cheaper than the US and Britain, you can be sure there's not many poor students amongst them.

We are still talking about a very small minority of students studying overseas from a total population of 1.2 billion. If any of you have ever visited China, Beijing and Shanghai probably has a greater number of nouveau riche to the total population of China. It can be observed at the high-tone shops and restaurants - there seems to be many buying the latest fashions and paying western prices at first class restaurants. When I visited China in 2000, we paid upwards of $50.00 for a meal, but that's still in big contrast to the what the majority of Chinese can afford to spend for a meal - when earning about $4,700/year.

Been doing a bit of research into this ..

Mostly into the nature of China proper.

Lots of the heartland is very traditional…electricity is not even used.

in those regions, the ability to deal with the responsibilities of freedom is not being handled well.

Latest reports are of internet café's being closed down because of tired children falling asleep on the roads…and Harry Potter books being banned for the effect they have been having on youngsters.

It all just brushes over kids that grew up with it…not so in China.