Posted 2/25/2011

CHINA IS BIG!

China is big.

Really, really big. And it is big in many, many ways.

China is a continental country covering 3.7 million square miles. (The USA is slightly larger, but only if you count Alaska and Hawaii.)

The Middle Kingdom is big in people. Its 1.4 billion people comprise one-fifth of all the people on earth. China's population is 4.2 times the size of the United States' population.

Chongqing (formerly called Chungking) is a metropolitan area of 33 million people.

China's middle class now numbers over 300 million – close to the total population of the U.S. This largely explains why General Motors sells more cars in China than it does in America.

China boasts a huge army of 2.4 million men and women. This number was reduced from 4 million soldiers when President Hu and Premier Wen pacified relations with the 14 countries on China's borders.

From a standing start ten years ago, China now boasts a submarine fleet which matches the American fleet in size.

The Middle Kingdom leads the world in longevity. Its dynasties and other forms of government reach back over 4,000 years. China has been the world's largest economy for 3,800 years. Victorian England led in the 19th century, with the USA dominating in the 20th century and during the first decade of the 21st Century. Today, China is determined to regain its lost economic leadership.

Everything China does is big.

The Great Wall, an engineering miracle, is huge. It covers four provinces in Northern China and traverses mountains and valleys alike.

The exquisitely constructed terra cotta warriors of Xian number over six thousand. And the emperor's tomb has yet to be excavated.

"In 14-hundred-92 Columbus sailed the ocean blue" with 87 men in three dinky, little ships, which was a heroic feat of seamanship. But 90 years earlier, Chinese Admiral Sheng He sailed all the way to Africa with a fleet of over 20,000 men and a flagship that was over 400 feet long – 33 percent longer than a football field. He made five additional voyages during the early days of the Ming Dynasty and commanded 137,000 men. Sheng He's navy was larger than the combined fleets of all Europe.

When Chairman Mao ordered the construction of Tiananmen Square, he demanded that it be "big enough to hold one million Chinese" and to be "considerably larger than Red Square" in Moscow. (While Tiananmen Square is huge, it may no longer be able to contain one million Chinese: obesity has become big in Beijing, Shanghai and other cities.)

Hu Jintao, President of the Peoples Republic of China, sold the Communist Party on building the monster-size Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River – a dam which dwarfs the Hoover Dam in the USA. It is breathtaking to see.

Beijing's 2008 Olympics stunned the world with the quality and quantity of its ceremonial performers, venues and support staff. The USA could never duplicate that effort – it would take us over 20 years to accomplish all the permitting.

China has become the world's largest exporter, which has allowed it to pile up an international currency reserve worth about $2.6 trillion. In the past ten years, China has become the world's largest lending nation, while the U.S. has become the world's largest borrowing nation.

The bottom line is that China has become big in power. So big that many experts are predicting that China will eclipse the United States in twenty years and become the world's sole superpower.

American taking tours of China have come back dazzled with the Middle Kingdom's cities and transportation achievements. Many have become pessimistic about America's future.

Will the pessimists be right?

You may wish to read our upcoming article: "CHINA IS FRAGILE."

(click here for a printable version of this article)