How China caught up

In early 1980s, the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa produced more goods and services than China. By 2015, Sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 3.1 percent of global GDP. China accounted for 17.2 percent. Not only is the Chinese economy is now larger than America’s (in PPP terms) but it could soon account for one fourth of all global output:

What if we imagined a G-2 coalition or union? The G-2 (U.S. + China) would account for one third of the global economy (33.1 percent). Tallying up the GDP of all advanced economies except for the U.S. would give us 26.5 percent in 2015:

Another way to way to visualize China’s amazing growth performance is to show how total GDP in both economies evolved since 1980:

Alternatively, we could look at real GDP growth in per capita terms from a fixed date. Pick 1980; India’s economy great more than eightfold in the last 35 years. China’s economy is now almost 26 times larger than it was in 1980:

This is not just a representation of some abstract “economic strength.” People’s lives improved, as poverty finally declined. As The Economist reported: “[I]n 1980 [China] had the largest number of poor people anywhere. … Between 1981 and 2010 it lifted a stunning 680m people out poverty — more than the entire current population of Latin America. This cut its poverty rate from 84% in 1980 to about 10% now.”

An edited version of this post was originally published at janzilinsky.com on February 1, 2016.