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You realize that China has only a 1 trillion dollar economy don't you?

Actually, China's international trade figures alone exceeded 1 trillion dollars in 2004:

China's exports rose 35.4% in 2004 from a year earlier to $593.4 billion, while imports climbed 36% to $561.4 billion, the ministry said, citing customs statistics.

I think that the generally accepted figure for Chinese GDP is more like 3-5 trillion dollars, depending on how you like to count things.

the 3 to 5 trillion i a PPP index. I cannot read the article you posted as I will not register with the LA Times. Can you point me to a primary source on that? I go to China and I doubt all those figures, particularly the GDP figures. I would like to see your sources. For China to to have those sorts of numbers it would have had to have had 100 percent growth rates in the last few years. Remember, I am talking about real GDP.

I looked it up. That is the total of imports exports, inputs and outputs, including energy and investments (also appears to be an "official projection") so it perhaps is not the bet indicator. One would have to use the same metric against our economy and not just compare it to GDP. We could split the difference and say a 2 trillion GDP. That is a long way from "having all the money."

They of course cannot sustain that sort of growth do to structural economic and social challenges and ever growing Geo-political pressure - they cannot maintain the dollar pegging and the market restrictions for very long. Yes, they have more "structural depth" than Japan had as it came up in the world, but they also are up to a lot more questionable shenanigans. In the near to mid term, I feel that China's economic clout is exaggerated considerably. Long term - meaning out two or three generations - it is probably not taken seriously enough.

That is not to say that our policies with China in almost every area are not in shambles. Certainly we need much reform here. I do think that the Bush Administration is weak in this area.