China's Economy, Politics, and Demography
INTRODUCTION According to the World Bank, China's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was $18.7 trillion in 2024, compared to $29.2 trillion for the United States. China's economy was 64% the size of the American economy; a generation ago, in 2000, China's GDP was only 12% of America's. China has been a spectacular economic success story. China has increased its share of global manufacturing from 6% in 2000 to 32% in 2024. Manufacturing makes up 28 percent of China’s economy, compared with 11 percent in the United States. China sees it dominance of interrelated advanced technologies as key to its geopolitical global dominance of the United States. THE BEGINNING OF CHINA'S ECONOMIC RISE After the death of Mao in 1976, a more pragmatic group of Communist leaders seized power and began to change China. Their model was Singapore, whose population was mostly Chinese. Singapore’s economic growth model was that the dominant political party would direct economic growth. It in...