"Although most Chinese people remain poor (average per capita income, at $5,600, is lower than in the Dominican Republic), China is already the world's second biggest economy. Its GDP of $7.3 trillion, as measured in purchasing power parity, trails only the United States (at $11.7 trillion), and it is growing much faster. Last year China's economic growth rate was 9.1 percent, more than twice the U.S. rate of 4.4 percent. At this pace, China will overtake the U.S. economy in a little over a decade."
Unbelievable that someone considered as "influential" as Max Boot would offer up such a misleading, if not woefully ignorant, economic argument. We'll see if he replies to my email on the matter, but I've found that few writers I challenge on this point ever do. I am not surprised to find that his schooling is in history - not economics. It's both mind-boggling and depressing that this sort of assertion has become the standard when discussing China's GDP versus America's.
How about posting at least part of that email, to help us better understand your point?
Overall a very good article.
In the case of Japan, that means supporting a move to amend the MacArthur-era constitution which makes it difficult to send the Self-Defense Forces abroad (including for the defense of Taiwan or South Korea) and a more recent political decree that caps military spending at 1 percent of GDP.
I think that Japan would be better served both to formally revise Article 9 and to increase its military budget from around $50 billion per year to more like $100 billion.
As to Mr. Boot's "The British tried confrontation with Germany (symbolized by the 1904 Anglo-French Entente Cordiale and an Anglo-German naval arms race) and appeasement with Japan (the 1902 Anglo-Japanese Alliance and considerable aid for the Imperial Japanese Navy until the late 1920s)", I am not so sure that "appeasement" is the word that I would have chosen since the British-Japanese relationship of the early 20th century seems to me to have been more solid than that.
Here is the total gdp from last year sorry but china is not at 7 trillion yet not even near it. Its china worshiping sensationalism.
(AP) - The world's 20 wealthiest countries, based on World Bank Gross Domestic Product figures from 2004, the most recent available for all nations.
1. United States, $11.67 trillion
2. Japan, $4.6 trillion
3. Germany, $2.7 trillion
4. Britain, $2.1 trillion
5. France, $2.0 trillion
6. Italy, $1.67 trillion
7. China, $1.65 trillion
8. Spain, $991.44 billion
9. Canada, $979.76 billion
10. India, $691.88 billion
11. South Korea, $679.67 billion
12. Mexico, $676.5 billion
13. Australia, $631.26 billion
14. Brazil, $604.86 billion
15. Russia, $582.4 billion
16. Netherlands, $577.26 billion
17. Switzerland, $359.47 billion
18. Belgium, $349.83 billion
19. Sweden, $346.4 billion
20. Turkey, $301.95 billion
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On the Net:
Full list of 185 countries is at: http://www.worldbank.org/data/data
Actually if you think about how the GPD is calculated, If China didn't have 1.3 Billion people, But say maybe 500-700 million people, They would be better off than right now. But on the other hand it wouldn't be good since more money would go towards the military,