China still has a long way to go before it overtakes the United State. The gap betweenChina and many developed countries remains significant.
A comparative study recently released by The World Bank’s International ComparisonProject (ICP) estimated the world’s economies for 2011, and found that China’s economy islikely to surpass that of the U.S. this year.
Purchasing power parity (PPP) was used to prepare the recent estimates. According toexperts from China’s National Bureau of Statistics the numbers underestimate Chineseprices and overestimate the country’s GDP (gross domestic product ).
In Western countries, GDP is an indicator of output which equates to the level of aresident's income. But in China there is huge gap between GDP and resident income.Usually, China’s revenues make up 70%-75% of GDP, says Professor Huo Deming from theNational Development Research Institute of Peking University.
While it is indisputable that China has rapid GDP growth, there is still a significant gapbetween China and developed countries like the US and many other European countries, interms of quality of development and per capita GDP. World Bank statistics show that interms of purchasing power parity (PPP), per capita GDP of China's mainland in 2011 was $ 10,057, ranking 99th in the world, while the per capita GDP of the U.S. was $ 49,782,ranking 12th.
China's economy is now shifting from high-speed growth to medium-speed growth,requiring us to direct more attention to the quality of development. “Although the gapbetween the two countries in total economic activity is narrowing, we can still see quite adisparity in per capita GDP," says Xu Guangjian, professor of the Institute of Public Affairsin Renmin University. He points out that China is the world's manufacturing center.Services and high-tech industries still make up a relatively low proportion of its economy.
As a large developing country, China's basic conditions remain unchanged. Zhang Liqun, aresearcher from the State Council Development Research Center says that the quality ofeconomic development is much more important than the percentage of GDP growth.
The OECD once estimated that China would become the world’s largest economy in 2016;China itself pegged 2025 as the year it would catch up with or slightly surpass the US at anannual GDP growth of 7.5%.
In contrast to the hype in the western media about China ending the US reign as theworld's biggest economy over more than 140 years, Chinese media and economists havebegun to rethink the current model of economic development. After 30 years pursuit ofGDP regardless of the cost to the environment and resources, Chinese people are awarethat what China needs is green mountains and clean waters - a long-term balanceddevelopment model - once basic needs are provided for.
The article is edited and translated from《中国离发达国家还有很长路》, source: People'sDaily, author: Zhou Xiaoyuan. （Editor：GaoYinan、Yao Chun）
|
