ABSTRACT
Between 1949 and 1978, China witnessed great economic upheavals and its leaders were heavily entangled with politics. Despite having the largest population in the world, China was insignificant in the global economic arena. Since the inauguration of the economic reforms in 1978, China’s role in global economic and political affairs has increasingly shifted towards centre stage. As a nation, China’s competitiveness is re flected in the following indicators:
1 .Rising in the world economic rankings with strong and sustained growth
Having undergone unprecedentedly rapid economic growth, China is now not only the world’s factory but also a major part of the world market. From 1979 to 2006, the aver age growth rate of China’s GDP was 9.7 per cent and the rate for 2003-2006 was par ticularly strong, at 10.4 per cent, well ahead of other countries and regions, as shown in Table 8.1. China’s industrial sector has had an even more outstanding performance: the rate of growth of industrial output in Europe, the USA and Japan were all under 6 per cent in 2006, while China enjoyed a rate of 16.6 per cent. Since 2005, China has become the world’s fourth largest economy after the USA, Japan and Germany.
