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Article: China's challenge to the United States and to the earth.
- Article from:
- World Watch
- Article date:
- September 1, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 Worldwatch Institute. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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During the 1990s, China has emerged as an economic superpower, boasting the world's second largest economy. It is now challenging not only U.S. economic leadership, but the earth's environmental limits.
Using purchasing power parity to measure output, China's 1995 GNP of just over $3 trillion exceeded Japan's $2.6 trillion and trailed only the U.S. output of $6.7 trillion. If the Chinese economy continues to double every eight years, the pace it has maintained since 1980, it will overtake the United States by 2010, becoming the world's largest economy.
Over the last four years the Chinese economy has grown by 10 to 14 percent per year. As its population of ...