China now plays a critical role in the global economy. In just ten years, a small emerging market has transformed into a geopolitical giant. Here are just a few facts to stun you:
Economy:
- China’s economy grew 7 times as fast as America’s over the past decade (316% growth vs. 43%).
- China’s GDP per capita is the 91st-lowest in the world, below Bosnia & Herzegovina.
- More than 134 million people in China live on less than $1 a day.
- If he spent his entire Annual Income on housing, the average Beijing resident could buy only 10 square feet of residential property (the size of a small bedroom).
Military:
- China has 150% more soldiers than the United States, plus a high tech ‘kill weapon’ for destroying U.S. aircraft carriers. It is estimated that the missile can travel at mach 10 and reach its maximum range of 2000km in less than 12 minutes.
Travel:
- The new train between Shanghai and Beijing (150 mph vs 302 mph) travels twice as fast as Americ’s fastest ‘high speed’ train.
Environment:
- China’s enormous Gobi Desert is the size of Peru and expanding 1,400 square miles per year due to water source depletion, over-foresting, and over-grazing.
- Linfen, China has been named the worst polluted city in the world. The high levels of pollution take a serious toll on human health, with clinics recording ever increasing cases of bronchitis, pneumonia and lung cancer.
Commerce:
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Ghost Cities
By 2025, China will build enough skyscrapers to fill 10 New York-sized cities, yet China has 64 million vacant homes, including entire cities that are empty. Build and populate later is China’s policy, as can been seen also in Las Vegas and Spain.
- By 2030, China will add more new city-dwellers than the entire U.S. population.
- The world’s biggest shopping mall is in China… but it has been 99% empty since 2005.
- 85 percent of artificial Christmas trees are made in China. So are 80 percent of toys.
- China has half a billion pigs, more pigs than the next 43 pork producing countries combined.
- China is the source of over 77% of U.S.’s pirated goods.
- 40% of small businesses in China went bust in the world financial crisis.
Society:
- Chinese consume 50,000 cigarettes every second.
- Nearly one third of Chinese adults live with their parents.
- Over 75% of China supports the ‘one-child’ policy.
- The Bubonic plague began in China in the Gobi desert in the early 1330’s. China, along with several other nations, has not been able to rid itself of the medieval plague that wiped out 25 million Europeans.
- The majority of Chinese people drink polluted water.
- There are more cell phones in China than people in the United States.
Religion:
- 74 percent of Chinese believe in evolution, better than Mexico (69%), Argentina (68%) and Great Britain (68%).
- China is on track to becoming the largest center of Christianity in the world with an estimated 54 million Christians in the country. Already there are more Christians in China than in the whole of Italy.
Justice System:
- China carried out at least 1,718 executions in 2008, three times as many as the rest of the world, according to Amnesty International. Some analysts put the yearly figure closer to 6,000. Many executions are done on the road using vehicles where the condemned is injected.
- Nearly 10,000 Chinese citizens each year are sucked into unsanctioned ‘black jails’. Will Mr Hu please explain this?
Finance
- When you buy Chinese stocks, you are basically financing the Chinese government. Eight of Shanghai’s top ten stocks are government owned. These include PetroChina, Bank of China, and China Life Insurance Co.
- China is the largest foreign holder of U.S. Treasury securities, holding over $840 billion worth.
- China still received foreign aid from both the United Nations and the United States.
Finally, if the population of China walked past you single file, it would never end.
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