Why Americans Consider China the Biggest Economy

By He Qinglian

| | Related articles: Opinion > Thinking About China

A real estate office advertising property for sale, in Beijing on February 9. Some twenty percent of the city's registered residents will be unable to buy new a new apartment this year after a new round of policy tightening comes into effect, which industry experts predict could lead to a 20 to 30 percent drop in property sales and an increase in unemployment. (Frederic J. Brown/Getty Images )

It is interesting to compare the views of Americans and Chinese on China?s economy. Americans' view on China is often the opposite of Chinese people's view. A recent study by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that 47 percent of Americans think China is the world's leading economy, and only 31 percent think that the United States is still the largest economy.
Yet the Chinese people that live in the second largest GDP country are generally unsatisfied with their own quality of life. Many think that life is too stressful and that the future is not bright. A Dec. 2010 survey by the People's Forum magazine shows that nearly half of government officials, white-collar workers, and intellectuals consider themselves a member of a disadvantaged group. Only 12 percent of respondents to a survey by Huanqiu Times said that they considered China a superpower.
In fact, from communist authorities to the middle class, almost all families try to send their children overseas for schooling or to live abroad. They wouldn't do that unless they thought that other countries had more opportunities.
Is there any basis to support the view that China is the world's second largest economy? Actually, there isn't. The GDP of the United States is nearly three times that of China's. On a per-capita basis, the GDP of the United States is 11 times that of China's. Yet Americans don't seem to care about these numbers. They are envious of China's 4.3 percent unemployment rate.
Since the global economic crisis in 2008, the official unemployment rate in the U.S. has climbed and climbed, now sitting at even nine percent. Although Americans have Medicaid, Social Security, food stamps, and unemployment insurance, millions of Americans fell behind in the past two years, and can no longer maintain a middle-class lifestyle.
In 2009, 44 million Americans were living below the poverty line and five million lost their health insurance, bringing the total uninsured to nearly 51 million. In comparison, China's low unemployment rate was shocking to Americans. How could China not be the biggest economy in the world?

According to communist-run newspapers, China?s unemployment rate is 4.3 percent but many Chinese know that state-published statistics are often unreliable and don?t always match up. The National Bureau of Statistics said that in 2009 the registered unemployment rate was only 4.3 percent. Yet the ?Blue Paper? published by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said that the actual unemployment was closer to 10 percent.

In September 2010, the State Council's ?Human Resources Status White Paper of China? said that there were 1.07 billion employment-aged people in China at the end of 2009, 780 million of which were employed. Based on these statistics, 27 percent of employment-aged people were unemployed.

Next: State-run unemployment rate only includes ?registered? unemployed people

Gladiator review The Sting review Unforgiven review The Maltese Falcon review The Elephant Man review