Los números de China

Un reciente artículo llama la atención sobre el significado económico de China; es breve y asombroso. La nota que sigue es de Chris Kanthan para el sitio web  Sott.net. En este sitio web se ofrecen links para cada uno de los items mencionados.


Título: China's Global Leadership List

Texto: ChinaThe vast majority of Americans have absolutely no idea how advanced China has become. Perusing social media comments by Americans, it's clear that too many of them are burdened by misinformation and prejudice. "China is 100 years behind"... "All Chinese products are crap" ... "China can't innovate" ... "It's a communist, poor, polluted country" ... and, of course, the most popular: "China's economy is about to collapse." Furthermore, people reinforce their biases by gleefully sharing only anti-China articles. Anything remotely positive about China is attacked as "Chinese propaganda." 

This is a potent mix of ignorance, hubris and xenophobia. No wonder that Trump supporters were so confident of a trade deal in which Xi Jinping would surrender unconditionally and quickly. While it's true that China as whole has a long way to go to in terms of GDP-per-capita, many big cities in China are essentially "developed economies." And China has surpassed the US in many areas and is closing in rapidly in other areas. 

If you don't know your competitor, you're certain to lose the game. So here are some quick statistics on China's global leadership:

#1 in exports (been so since 2009 when it overtook Germany)
#1 in manufacturing value added (been so since 2010 when China took the crown from the US, which had been #1 for the previous 110 years)
#1 in foreign exchange reserves (>$3 trillion)
#1 holder of US debt (>$1 trillion)
#1 trade partner for 130 countries
#1 in PPP GDP (been so since 2014 when it surpassed the US)
#1 in contribution to global GDP growth for the past decade (25-35%, which is twice that of the US). That is, if the world GDP grows by $100, then $25-$35 comes from China.
#1 in Middle Class population (350 million in 2018; and it overtook the US in 2015)
#1 in poverty elimination (800 million lifted out of extreme poverty)
#1 retail market in the world by 2019 ($5.6 trillion)
#1 in e-commerce (42% of world market)
#1 in personal luxury goods sales (35% of global market)
#1 luxury car market (Example: 400,000 BMWs manufactured in China in 2017)
#1 in international tourism spending (In 2010, Chinese tourists spent half as much as Americans; and by 2017, China was spending twice as much as the US)
#1 in smartphones (Chinese brands have 40% of the global market)
#1 in 4G mobile network (1.2 billion users)
#1 in Internet users (830 million people), fiber-optic broadband users (320 million)
#1 in solar, wind and hydroelectric power (link)
#1 in electric cars - manufacturing and sales (link)
#1 in steel, cement, aluminum production (link, link, link)
#1 in manufacturing of conventional cars (>26 million per year)
#1 in consumer drones (70% of global market)
#1 in skyscrapers (link)
#1 in high-speed railways or bullet trains (30,000 Km or 18,000 miles)
#1 in supercomputers (227 out of the 500 supercomputers are Chinese)
#1 in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) college graduates (4x as many as the US)
#1 in scientific publications (link)
#1 in mobile payments (50x larger than the US)
#1 in 5G (China owns about 40% of 5G patents, and the world's leading 5G vendor and patent holder is none other than Huawei) 


And China is right behind the US in many areas:

#2 in nominal GDP ($13.5 trillion in 2018)
#2 in billionaires (about 400 billionaires)
#2 in millionaires (3.5 million millionaires)
#2 stock market, by market cap (overtook Japan in 2014, became #3 in 2018 and is about to be #2 again in 2019)
#2 importer ($2.1 trillion)
#2 in international patents - according to WIPO (#1 if patents filed in China are included)
#2 in R&D spending - according to US National Science Board (#1 if measured by purchasing power)
#2 in Unicorns (startup companies worth more than $1 billion. 142 in China versus 175 in US)
#2 in VC Funding ($100 billion of venture capital funding for about 2,900 startups)
#1 in Artificial Intelligence (AI) funding, startups and publications (link, link)
#2 in number of satellites in orbit/space (280 satellites as of 2018)


What should the US do? Try to "contain" China? Start World War III to maintain our global hegemony? Become depressed and paranoid? Thankfully, the answer to all those questions is "NO." There are constructive things that America can and should do to prepare for a future where it is no longer the global hegemon. I will discuss those in my next article.