On a recent episode of The Office, Michael Scott spent much of the show bemoaning the fact that China could soon become the number one economic superpower. Of course by the end of the episode everyone had concluded that the United States would continue to be number one indefinitely, but in the real world things are not so simple. Sadly, the cold, hard facts reveal that China is on the rise and the United States is experiencing a dramatic economic decline. The world is changing and China is projected to become the largest economy in the world at some point during the next decade. Americans have been taught from birth that “the U.S. is number one”, but the transition is really happening. China is passing the United States even in quite a few high tech industries and in many areas of scientific research. The numbers that you are going to read below are absolutely staggering. It is getting really hard to deny that the Chinese are wiping the floor with us economically. In fact, they are beating us so badly that it is hard to put into words.
Of course our leaders are saying all the right things. During the State of the Union address last January, Barack Obama defiantly declared the following to the rest of the world….
“I do not accept second place for the United States of America.”
Well, Barack Obama may not be willing to “accept” it, but that doesn’t mean that it is not happening. China is becoming an absolute powerhouse. Of course that would never have happened if we had not opened up trade with them.
We have essentially merged our economy with China’s over the past couple of decades. Now, if you walk into just about any store and start examining the products you will notice that far more of them are made in China than are made in the United States.
But most Americans still do not take China seriously. Most Americans still view China as being vastly inferior to the United States. Most Americans do not consider China to be an economic or a military threat at all.
Unfortunately, Americans have become so dumbed-down that only about 70 percent of them can even find China on a map.
The truth is that the world is radically changing. The truth is that China has become a world class rival of the United States. The truth is that the United States had better wake up fast if it wants to stay “number one”.
The following are 25 facts that prove that China is rapidly becoming the number one economic superpower on the globe….
#1 Back in 1998, the United States had 25 percent of the world’s high-tech export market and China had just 10 percent. Ten years later, the United States had less than 15 percent and China’s share had soared to 20 percent.
#2 The United States had been the leading consumer of energy on the globe for about 100 years, but this past summer China took over the number one spot.
#3 Nobel economist Robert W. Fogel of the University of Chicago is projecting that the Chinese economy will be three times larger than the U.S. economy by the year 2040 if current trends continue.
#4 Between 2000 and 2009, America’s trade deficit with China skyrocketed nearly 300 percent.
#5 Over the past 15 years, China has moved up from 14th place to 2nd place in the world in published scientific research articles.
#6 Apple iPhones are manufactured in China by workers making about 293 dollars a month (and that was after a big raise).
#7 In 2009, the United States ranked dead last of the 40 nations examined by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation when it came to “change” in “global innovation-based competitiveness” over the previous ten years.
#8 According to one recent study, China could become the global leader in patent filings by next year.
#9 Today, China controls over 90 percent of the total global supply of rare earth elements.
#10 According to a disturbing new study by the Economic Policy Institute, if the trade deficit with China continues to increase at its current rate, the U.S. economy will lose over half a million jobs this year alone.
#11 China is now the number one producer in the world of wind and solar power.
#12 The United States has lost a staggering 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000.
#13 Russia and China have announced that they have decided to quit using the U.S. dollar and instead start using their own national currencies when trading with each other.
#14 China now possesses the fastest supercomputer on the entire globe.
#15 In 2008, 1.2 billion cellphones were sold around the world. So how many of those cellphones were manufactured inside the United States? Zero.
#16 Today, the United States spends about $3.90 on Chinese goods for every $1 that China spends on goods from the United States.
#17 Now, close to half of all the graduate science students enrolled at colleges and universities in the United States are foreigners.
#18 China now has the world’s fastest train and the world’s biggest high-speed rail network.
#19 Manufacturing employment in the U.S. computer industry is actually lower in 2010 than it was in 1975.
#20 China is now the number one supplier of components that are critical to the operation of U.S. defense systems.
#21 Over the past several decades, China has been able to accumulate approximately $2.5 trillion in foreign currency reserves, and the U.S. government now owes them close to 900 billion dollars.
#22 Since 2001, over 42,000 U.S. factories have closed down for good.
#23 In 1985, the U.S. trade deficit with China was 6 million dollars for the entire year. In the month of August alone, the U.S. trade deficit with China was over 28 billion dollars.
#24 According to author Clyde Prestowitz, China’s number one export to the U.S. is computer equipment.
#25 In 2010, the number one U.S. export to China is “scrap and trash”.
So, in light of all of these statistics, is there anyone out there who still denies that the United States is in serious danger of being surpassed by China?
Sadly, the United States may not even hold on to the “number 2” spot for long. In fact, the economy of India is now projected to become larger than the U.S. economy by the year 2050.
Once upon a time, America was the most dominant economic power on the globe by such a margin that it was not even worth talking about who was in second place.
But those days are long gone.
Now we live in a nation that is rapidly becoming a post-industrial wasteland while the rest of the world catches up to us and passes us.
So is there any hope of turning all this around?
Is the decline of America inevitable?
Please feel free to leave a comment with your opinion….