China is no longer simply "an emerging power". It is true that China's GDP per capita remains very low (US $5,414) relative to developed countries, and well over 700 million of its estimated 1.3 billion people still live in poor rural areas. Yet China is now the second largest economy in the world, trailing only the United States. China continues to see enormous growth.
China is already a major world purchaser. The country currently consumes more than half of the world's pork and cement, a third of its steel, over a quarter of its aluminum and is now the biggest market for car sales. From a macroeconomic perspective, China's actions now have global rami cations, while in the global political arena, China's influence and soft power over regional and worldwide geopolitical dynamics is rapidly increasingly.
Currently, China's GDP annual growth rate remains at a healthy seven to nine percent, far outpacing the developed world. The bottom line is that as China becomes an increasingly important global power, it will have increasingly greater influence over all businesses. Rather than an emerging power, China has already emerged as a serious player.
