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Not Just The Largest Economy – Here Are 26 Other Ways China Has Surpassed America

Not Just The Largest Economy – Here Are 26 Other Ways China Has Surpassed America

 By Michael Snyder, on October 8th, 2014 

 

[Listen Up Canada]

In terms of purchasing power, China now has the largest economy on the entire planet, but that is not the only area where China has surpassed the United States.  China also accounts for more total global trade than the U.S. does, China consumes more energy than the U.S. does, and China now manufactures more goods than the U.S. does.  In other words, the era of American economic dominance is rapidly ending.  Global economic power is making a dramatic shift to the east, and that is going to have huge implications for our future.  We already owe the Chinese well over a trillion dollars, and as our economic infrastructure crumbles we are feverishly borrowing even more money in a desperate attempt to prop up our falling standard of living.  We can’t seem to match the work ethic, inventiveness and determination of China and other Asian nations and it is showing.  If we continue down this path, what will the future look like for future generations of Americans?

In terms of raw GDP, the U.S. is still number one, at least for now.  But according to the IMF, China is now the number one economy on the entire planet in terms of purchasing power…

The simple logic is that prices aren’t the same in each country: A shirt will cost you less in Shanghai than San Francisco, so it’s not entirely reasonable to compare countries without taking this into account. Though a typical person in China earns a lot less than the typical person in the US, simply converting a Chinese salary into dollars underestimates how much purchasing power that individual, and therefore that country, might have. The Economist’s Big Mac Index is a great example of these disparities.

So the IMF measures both GDP in market exchange terms, and in terms of purchasing power. On the purchasing power basis, China is overtaking the US right about now and becoming the world’s biggest economy.

When I first learned about this, I was quite stunned.

I knew that China’s economy had been roaring, but like most Americans I just assumed that the U.S. would continue to remain head and shoulders above everyone else.

Unfortunately, things are changing at a pace that is much faster than most people ever thought possible.  The following are 26 other ways that China has surpassed America…

#1 When you add up all imports and exports, China now accounts for more total global trade than the United States does.

#2 There is now more total corporate debt in China than there is in the United States.

#3 During 2013, we sold about 121 billion dollars worth of stuff to the Chinese, but they sold about 440 billion dollars worth of stuff to us.  That was the largest trade deficit that one nation has had with another nation in the history of the world.

#4 China is now the leading manufacturer of goods in the entire world.

#5 Back in 1998, the United States had 25 percent of the world’s high-tech export market and China had just 10 percent. Today, China’s high-tech exports are more than twice the size of U.S. high-tech exports.

#6 The United States had been the leading consumer of energy in the world for about 100 years, but during the summer of 2010 China took over the number one spot.

#7 China now has the largest new car market in the entire world.

#8 China has more foreign currency reserves than anyone else on the planet.

#9 China is the number one gold producer in the world.

#10 China is also the number one gold importer in the world.

#11 15 years ago, China was 14th in the world in published scientific research articles.  But now, China is expected to pass the United States and become number one very shortly.

#12 China is also expected to soon become the global leader in patent filings.

#13 China awards more doctoral degrees in engineering each year than the United States does.

#14 China has the world’s fastest train and the world’s most extensive high-speed rail network.

#15 China uses more cement than the rest of the world combined.

#16 Today, China produces nearly twice as much beer as the United States does.

#17 85 percent of all artificial Christmas trees are made in China.

#18 There are more pigs in China than in the next 43 pork producing nationscombined.

#19 China is now the number one producer of wind and solar power on the entire globe.

#20 China produces more than twice as much cotton as the United States does.

#21 China produces more than three times as much coal as the United States does.

#22 China now produces 11 times as much steel as the United States does.

#23 China controls over 90 percent of the total global supply of rare earth elements.

#24 An investigation by the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services foundmore than one million counterfeit Chinese parts in the Department of Defense supply chain.

#25 According to author Clyde Prestowitz, China’s number one export to the U.S.is computer equipment.  According to an article in U.S. News & World Report, the number one U.S. export to China is “scrap and trash”.

#26 Nobel economist Robert W. Fogel of the University of Chicago is projecting that the Chinese economy will be three times larger than the U.S. economy by the year 2040 if current trends continue.

The Chinese are using some of their new wealth to buy up land, properties and businesses here in the United States.  In fact, just the other day we learned that a group from China is buying New York City’s Waldorf Astoria hotel.

For much, much more on this trend, please see some of my previous articles…

-“The Chinese Are Acquiring Large Chunks Of Land In Communities All Over America”

-“45 Signs That China Is Colonizing America”

-“Meet Your New Boss: Buying Large Employers Will Enable China To Dominate 1000s Of U.S. Communities”

And most Americans don’t realize this, but Chinese-made cars will soon be sold in the United States.

The following is from a recent WND article…

Chinese-made cars will be making their way to the U.S. next year, and guess which company is going to start exporting them to our shores?

A Chinese company, of course.

Chinese-owned Volvo’s parent company, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, will begin exporting its S60L from China to the United States as early as next year, according to a Reuters report which quoted a senior Volvo executive.

Volvo is trying to take advantage of two new Chinese factories that will make up an export hub to send vehicles to the U.S. and Russia.

Everywhere you look, China is dominating and America is in decline.

If this was a sporting event for little kids, the “mercy rule” would have been invoked by now.

Unfortunately, there is no “mercy rule” on the global economic stage.

The United States is going to have to get things together if it wants to have any hope of competing with the Chinese in the future.

The Chinese are kicking our tails and they know it.

One survey found found that 75 percent of those living in China believe that their country is on the right track.

On the other hand, Americans are not nearly as optimistic.

According to one average of recent surveys, only 28 percent of Americans believe that the United States is on the right track.

I think that those numbers say a lot.  We have been in decline for quite some time, but we can never seem to get the ship righted.

Hopefully our leaders can start coming up with some solutions soon, because we are running out of time.

A Little Known Reality, Learn Fast Or Be A Victim

A Little Known Reality, Learn Fast Or Be A Victim

June 8, 2013. Source: Michael Snyder, Guest Post

In future China will employ millions of American workers and dominate thousands of small communities all over the United States. Chinese acquisition of U.S. Businesses set a new all-time record last year, and it is on pace to shatter that record this year.

 The Smithfield Foods acquisition is an example.  Smithfield Foods is the largest pork producer and processor in the world.  It has facilities in 26 U.S. States and it employs tens of thousands of Americans.  It directly owns 460 farms and has contracts with approximately 2,100 others.  But now a Chinese company has bought it for $ 4.7 billion, and that means that the Chinese will now be the most important employer in dozens of rural communities all over America. 

Thanks in part to our massively bloated trade deficit with China, the Chinese have trillions of dollars to spend. They are only just starting to exercise their economic muscle.

It is important to keep in mind that there is often not much of a difference between "the Chinese government" and "Chinese corporations".  In 2011, 43 percent of all profits in China were produced by companies where the Chinese government had a controlling interest in.

Last year a Chinese company spent $2.6 billion to purchase AMC entertainment - one of the largest movie theater chains in the United States.  Now that Chinese company controls more movie ticket sales than anyone else in the world.

But China is not just relying on acquisitions to expand its economic power.  "Economic beachheads" are being established all over America.  For example, Golden Dragon Precise Copper Tube Group, Inc. recently broke ground on a $100 million plant in Thomasville, Alabama.  Many of the residents of Thomasville, Alabama will be glad to have jobs, but it will also become yet another community that will now be heavily dependent on communist China.

And guess where else Chinese companies are putting down roots? Detroit. Chinese-owned companies are investing in American businesses and new vehicle technology, selling everything from seat belts to shock absorbers in retail stores, and hiring experienced engineers and designers in an effort to soak up the talent and expertise of domestic automakers and their suppliers. If you recently purchased an "American-made" vehicle, there is a really good chance that it has a number of Chinese parts in it. Industry analysts are hard-pressed to put a number on the Chinese suppliers operating in the United States.

China seems particularly interested in acquiring energy resources in the United States.  For example,  China is actually mining for coal in the mountains of Tennessee.  Guizhou Gouchuang Energy Holdings Group spent $616 million dollars to acquire Triple H Coal Co. in Jacksboro, Tennessee.  At the time, that acquisition really didn't make much news, but now a group of conservatives in Tennessee is trying to stop the Chinese from blowing up their mountains and taking their coal.

 And pretty soon China may want to build entire cities in the United States just like they have been doing in other countries. Right now China is actually building a city larger than Manhattan just outside Minsk, the capital of Belarus.

Are you starting to get the picture? China is on the rise. If you doubt this, just read the following:

# When you total up all imports and exports, China is now the number one trading nation on the entire planet.

# Overall, the U.S. has run a trade deficit with China over the past decade that comes to more than 2.3 trillion dollars.

# China has more foreign currency reserves than anyone else on the planet.

# China now has the largest new car market in the entire world.

# China now produces more than twice as many automobiles as the United States does. After being bailed out by U.S. taxpayers, GM is involved in 11 joint ventures with Chinese companies.

# China is the number one gold producer in the world.

# The uniforms for the U.S. Olympic team were made in China.

# 85% of all artificial Christmas trees the world over are made in China.

# The new World Trade Center tower in New York is going to include glass imported from China.

# China now consumes more energy than the United States does.

# China is now in aggregate the leading manufacturer of goods in the entire world.

# China uses more cement than the rest of the world combined.

# China is now the number one producer of wind and solar power on the entire globe.

# China produces 3 times as much coal and 11 times as much steel as the United States does.

# China produces more than 90 percent of the global supply of rare earth elements.

# China is now the number one supplier of components that are critical to the operation of any national defense system.

# In published scientific research articles China is expected to become number one in the world very shortly.

Overseas offspring of Chinese leaders summoned home

• Staff Reporter
 
• 2013-03-23

Xi Jinping's daughter was at Harvard before she dropped her studies to return to Beijing. (Photo/CFP)

The children of China's newly appointed leaders and senior officials who have been studying or working abroad have abruptly dropped what they were doing and returned home, a move intended to demonstrate that their parents are loyal to the country. They include Xi Mingze, the daughter of the country's new president, Xi Jinping, who had been studying at Harvard University, according to the Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao.

Shortly before and after the Communist Party's 18th National Congress in November last year, many offspring of leaders have returned, also selling their houses and cars as well as cancelling their bank accounts abroad, the paper said.

A number of them were at Harvard, especially its Kennedy School of Government, which has had strong ties to China's government sine 1990s and has been attended by senior officials such as the new vice president, Li Yuanchao, and Hubei party secretary Li Hongzhong. Harvard president Drew Faust said the university has turned down the children of many state leaders in the past.

Bo Guagua, the son of the disgraced Chongqing party secretary Bo Xilai, is another to have studied at the Kennedy School of Government. He is believed to be keeping a low profile in the United States with his father set to stand trial for abusing his power at an as-yet-unspecified date.

The 21-year-old Xi Mingze, Xi Jinping's only daughter, dropped out of the university in November last year before her father was named head of the party. She has returned to work at Peking University where she previously studied. Very few people with the exception of staff members at the university have information about what she is doing, according to Ming Pao.

Li Yuanchao's son Li Haijin, who was attending Yale University, and the daughters of new vice premiers Wang Yang and Ma Kai have also reportedly moved back to China. Ma's daughter is understood to have been living and working in the United States for several years.

Though there have been suggestions that the leaders' offspring are being brought home to ensure their safety given their parents' new positions, the move is more likely to be politically motivated — to avoid any perception that their powerful parents have a foot in two camps. In the past, many senior officials who sent their spouses and children abroad have drawn heavy criticism that became an obstacle to their career advancement. In the case of many unscrupulous officials at lower levels, it has been the prelude for them leaving the company themselves, having moved their assets abroad beforehand through this means.

　

Where's Waldo

Fracking And Free Trade Scramble The Political Order of Things

BY RICHARD HUGHES, ON NOVEMBER 23RD, 2012

Richard ‘Hub’ Hughes-Political Blogger

It is getting harder by the day to differentiate one Canadian political party from another. Between Free trade Deals and fracking opportunities the left and right political philosophies have melded into a centre right soup of convenience and misguided opportunism.

China's best friend

NDP leader Mulcair should be facing a mutiny in his caucus as he flip flops around over Free Trade and gropes about for the handle on FIPPA, the Canada-China Trade and Investment Deal.

It seems as if  he is now seeking validation from his counterparts PM Harper and Liberal Leader Bob Rae instead of standing his ground with a contrary postition to that of the old Liberal-Conservative gang.

Thomas Mulcair-NDP Leader showing weakness on so called free trade deals.

You will recall the longstanding NDP focused criticism against free trade expansion, not so much anymore. Now Thomas Mulcair embraces it with unbridled enthusiasm and has confused voters as to just where the hell he stands.

His MP’s may still be numb and disorientated at this point, but that will not last long. Will he be able to maintain his grip over his large caucus? Time will tell, but the NDP will not be the NDP that we have known if  maintains his rightward drift.

Speaking of Free Trade isn’t the legal and political fuss over Quebec’s moratorium revealing the benefits of NAFTA a timely wake up call.

Lone Pine Resources have filed a 250 million dollar challenge against Quebec for interfering in their profit making in the ‘fracking’ game.

The Globe and Mail’s Legal Reporter Jeff Gray filled this

The Quebec government’s move to cancel a natural-gas exploration permit for deposits beneath the St. Lawrence River last year was “arbitrary, capricious and illegal,” according to the U.S. energy company challenging the move under the North American free-trade agreement.

The rest of story demonstrates the very ‘Free Trade Benefits’ that Mulcair has grown so fond of these last couple of weeks.

Turns out suing under NAFTA may be a clever way to make money with the glut of Natural Gas only growing.

Our Prime Minister Stephen (Steve) Harper is up against it because his friends in the ‘Tar Sands’ game are sucking eggs over the markets downward spiral and although he was ready to sell us out to the thugs running the Chinese Communist Party it appears that forces may well be at work to save his sorry ass from, um, consummating that sellout of our resources and our sovereignty. One hopes!

I hope that is the case anyway but for whatever reasons, legal, political and ethical. OK scratch ethical, the deal has yet to be inked and Steve is out of town arranging God knows what to try and bail out his mishandling of our economy as the energy bonanza is turning into a nightmare.

Harper is isolating himself politically and the grumbling amongst those of a conservative bent is increasing as they are now realizing that his mishandling of our countries affairs is not good for business.

Ten Premiers are meeting in Halifax concerned over the state of our economy and of course ‘Steve’ is not amongst them. Clearly PM Harper lacks the chutzpah to face the Premiers but you can bet the farm that they are not singing his praises.

Alberta Premier Alison Redford & Quebec Premier Pauline Marois-Let’s Make A Deal!

It seems the once warm and cozy relationship between Alberta Premier Alison Redford and our Chisty is now beyond reconciliation but hey look at Ms Redford’s new BFF Quebec Premier Pauline Marois. The two politically polar opposites have discovered common ground regarding shipping Tar Sands product east to Ontario-Quebec, the Maritimes and eastern US markets. Let us hope that they have the whit to refine it before shipping. The odds of shipping through BC and from our coast to China are looking iffier each day passes.

Could it be that the best men for the job are two women premiers? Let’s hope so the men sure as hell have made a botch up of it.

Justin Trudeau MP-Making his mark!

Back home in BC Premier Christy and her Energy Minister are already very aware of  the sinking value of the natural gas contributions to the treasury coffers.

They have yet to pay much attention to the downsides of fracking but the NAFTA action in Quebec surely is of interest to NDP Leader Adrian Dix and his Energy Critic John Horgan.

Besides legal heartburn the BC NDP duo are well aware of the ever increasing concern and opposition to fracking. They will be under a great deal of pressure to square the circle that they will most likely inherit from the BC Liberal’s when the ballots are tabulated in May 2013. They will be watching the NAFTA challenge in Quebec with keen interest.

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May

Let us not loose track of the politicians actually gaining traction recently. Justin Trudeau’s grip on the Liberal leadership is increasing and perhaps the most effective politician in Canada today, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, has been recognized as Canada’s top parliamentarian. Nice to see.

Carbon tax think-tank makes for strange bedfellows-While China Laughs

A Sinophile, Maurice Strong Invention....

Carbon tax think-tank makes for strange bedfellows

 

Ecofiscal Commission includes environmentalist, oil and gas industry heavyweights as factions from both sides of the energy divide push for national carbon-pricing plan

Dec. 30, 2014, midnight

 Mining & Energy, by Nelson Bennett

Preston Manning, founder of the populist conservative Reform Party, says Canada needs to put a price on carbon emissions. | Manning Centre

With a board of directors that includes David Suzuki Foundation CEO Peter Robinson and former NDP politicians Mike Harcourt and Bob Rae, few might register surprise over a new think-tank called Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission calling for a national carbon tax.

But when Preston Manning, the father of modern Canadian populist conservatism, recently threw his weight behind a national carbon-pricing scheme, it shocked some conservatives.

Canadian business leaders, particularly in the oil and gas industry, might be less surprised, however. Suncor Energy (TSX:SU) CEO Steve Williams is an Ecofiscal Commission member – as is Manning.

Oil and gas companies expect Canada will eventually put a price on carbon, said Chris Ragan, chairman of the new economic think-tank.

“They are building shadow carbon prices into their investment decisions,” he said. “They know something’s coming. They would prefer to see, for the most part, a transparent, broad-based carbon price [rather] than complex, prescriptive, sometimes heavy-handed regulations.”

Jock Finlayson, chief policy officer for the Business Council of BC, agreed.

“If one wants to have a carbon-pricing policy, it would work better to have it at the national level rather than have individual provinces running off doing their own thing,” Finlayson said.

In the 2008 election campaign, the Conservatives promised a cap-and-trade system, and then reversed that stance in 2011. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Stephen Harper dismissed calls to put new limits on Canadian oil producers as “crazy.”

Stockwell Day, who beat out Manning for the leadership of the Canadian Alliance in 2000, spoke to the Vancouver Board of Trade December 10 about a new oil refinery proposal for Prince Rupert. Asked his reaction to Manning’s support for a carbon tax proposal, he said, “I completely disagree.

“Raising taxes or bringing in new taxes, I’ve always said, is a no-brainer. We hope governments don’t do that.”

In the meantime, three provinces – B.C., Alberta and Quebec – have all introduced their own variations on carbon pricing, and earlier this month B.C. Premier Christy Clark lobbied her Ontario counterpart to look at B.C.’s carbon tax as a model for capping emissions without putting curbs on economic growth.

B.C. is the only jurisdiction in North America with a carbon tax, Quebec has a cap-and-trade system and Alberta has a $15-per-tonne carbon levy that applies only to the largest polluters.

And that’s a problem, said Finlayson. Canadian industry would prefer one national pricing mechanism to a patchwork of provincial regulations.

“What we have in Canada right now is clearly suboptimal,” he said.

Not only do the pricing mechanisms differ in B.C., Alberta and Quebec, so do the emissions inventories and reporting.

“In an ideal scenario, you wouldn’t have individual provinces running off in all different directions, which is what we have at the moment,” Finlayson said. “We would have a single national carbon-pricing scheme. I think most of the business community would rather see more of this pushed up to the national level and less of it being done by sub-national jurisdictions.”

Ragan said the Ecofiscal Commission has yet to come up with a preferred carbon-pricing mechanism, but pointed to B.C.’s carbon tax as a good model. The fact that it’s revenue-neutral is a big selling point for business, he said, because if business is worried about new taxes, a national carbon tax could be offset with equal reductions in corporate and income taxes.

“You can use the revenues to reduce the most growth-retarding taxes we have,” he said.

Finlayson said he also prefers the B.C. carbon tax model.

“My view, as an economist, would be leaning more toward the simplest possible policy, which is carbon pricing – a broadly applied carbon levy of some sort that affects both households and business. So something more like what B.C. has done rather than what Quebec has done.”

Now that China and the U.S. have agreed to a new protocol on climate change, Canada – a major oil producer – has come under increasing international pressure to do more to tackle its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon recently urged Canada to take a leadership role on climate change, and in a series of unflattering articles in The Guardian newspaper, Canada has been portrayed as a climate change freeloader, with the Alberta oilsands in particular getting most of the attention.

In 2009, when it signed the Copenhagen Accord, Canada agreed to reduce its GHG emissions to 17% below 2005 levels by 2020.

That would require Canada getting its GHGs down to 612 tonnes by 2020. But Environment Canada’s Sixth National Report on Climate Change recently projected GHGs will hit 734 tonnes by 2020 – a 122-tonne shortfall. Nor does the report give Canada much hope for meeting its Copenhagen targets.

“In light of strong economic growth this could be challenging,” the report states.

With 0.5% of the world’s population, Canada produces 2% of global carbon dioxide. Alberta’s oilsands account for 8.7% of Canada’s GHGs and 0.13% of the world’s carbon, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

Given Canada’s small share of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, it could be argued that doing nothing would have a negligible impact anyway.

“Canadians could choose to be free riders, if they wanted,” Ragan said. “But I don’t think that’s who we are.”