China Spreads Its Wings
10 December 2008 China’s development over the past two decades could be called historic, except for one thing: history has no examples like it. Since 1980, China’s economy has grown by around 10% each year, and currently ranks fourth in the world (in purchasing power parity terms, China is second to just the US). In fact, most government efforts are now geared toward slowing investment in China, so as to avoid stimulating inflation and creating economic bubbles that are too big to maintain. However, for over two decades the feared “boom-bust” cycle has been all boom.
Statistics become cartoonish when discussing China’s success over the past 20 years and its possibilities for the future. Its 1.3-billion person population had an estimated 111 million Internet users at the end of 2005, or nearly twice the population of France or the UK, and around 335 million cellular phone users, or 75 million more than the population of the US. No area of global agriculture has been untouched by the country’s rapid growth, including crop protection and fertilizer production and consumption, cotton and textiles, fruits and vegetables, ornamentals, and all associated industries up and down the food and fiber supply chains.
The world’s eyes remain fixed on China, which is nearing a few milestones in the coming years. After 13 years in construction and a cost of US $24 billion, the immense engineering feat, the Three Gorges Dam across the Yangtze River, will be essentially be complete this year, revolutionizing electrification and flood control in the area. And as Beijing is set to host the 2008 Olympic Games, China’s moment in the limelight isn’t going to stop anytime soon.
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