Is China very poor?

中国很穷吗？

以下是Quora网友的评论：

inyu Ma

This is China’s city:

这是中国的城市

This is also China’s city:

这也是中国的城市

This is China’s air:

这是中国的空气

This is also China’s air:

这也是中国的空气

This is China’s baby:

这是中国的儿童

This is also China’s baby:

这也是中国的儿童

This is China’s soldier:

这是中国的士兵

This is also China’s soldier:

这也是中国的士兵

So if you ask me questions like whether China is poor or rich, I cannot just use a simple word yes or no to answer because China is so big. It has a population of about 1.4 b, which is about the population the USA, Canada, Australia, Europe, and Japan all combined.

If I ask you that is the whole western world rich? It’s hard to answer. But what I am sure is that China is getting better.

所以，如果你问我中国到底是穷还是富，我无法只用一个简单的“穷”或“富”来回答，因为中国实在太大了。中国人口有14亿之多，大约是美国、加拿大、澳大利亚、欧洲和日本人口的总和。

如果我问你，西方国家作为一个整体很富裕吗？这也很难回答对吧。但我敢肯定地说，中国已经变得越来越好了。

Callan Chua

On an individual level.

China’s population 1.324 Billion (2016)

US’s population 323.4 Million (2016)

There are almost 49 million people living in poverty in the USA while there are only 45 million people below the poverty line in China, despite the fact that there 4.24 times more people living in China.

在个人层面上。

中国人口13.24亿 (2016年)

美国人口3.234亿 (2016年)

美国有近4900万人生活在贫困中，而中国只有4500万人生活在贫困线以下，要注意中国的总人口可是美国的4.24倍哦！

US, 49 million is 15.15% of population

China, 45 million is 3.39% of population

This means that in China, on average, for every 100 people you meet, about 3 will be in poverty. Not perfect.

But in the US, on average for every 100 people, you have 15 in poverty.

美国4900万贫困人口占美国总人口的15.15%

中国4500万贫困人口占中国总人口的3.39%

这意味着，你在中国每遇到100个人，只有3个人生活贫困。

但在美国，平均每100人中就有15人处于贫困状态。

I don’t know, but I think most of those 15 are either esca lots of taxes or they live on so much handouts that there is no incentive to have an income at all.

And US government nowadays seems hell bent on trying to increasing the number 3 for China rather then reducing the number 15 for the US so that they look more competent than they are.

我不太清楚，但我认为这15个人中多数人要么逃税，要么严重依赖救济过活，根本没有动力去赚钱养活自己。

美国政府现在似乎下定决心要增加中国的贫困人口，而不是减少美国的贫困人口，好像这么做能显得他们贼厉害似的。

Ismail Bashmori

China is the richest country in the world in terms of national potential in all fields. Potential that it is exploiting relentlessly and at a feverish pace.

China's per capita GDP (nominal, 2020): $10,500 USD

America's per capita GDP (nominal, 2020): $64,000 USD

就各国在各个领域的潜力而言，中国是世界上最富有的国家。中国正在以狂热的速度挖掘这种潜力。

中国人均GDP(2020年名义GDP)：10500美元

美国人均GDP(2020年名义)：64000美元

But just 13 hours ago, a country discovered a new mineral element on the moon that might one day become our most powerful fuel for nuclear fusion. Nuclear fusion produces much more energy and much less radioactive waste than nuclear fission.

That country wasn't the United States. It was China.

但就在13个小时前，某国在月球上发现了一种新的矿物元素，这种元素未来可能会成为核聚变最强大的燃料。核聚变能比核裂变产生更多的能量和更少的放射性废物。

可惜那个国家不是美国，而是中国。

China teaches us that GDP can be a worthless measure of a country's status and progress. We should have some new measure expressing national potential that is successfully being exploited.

Momentum belongs to China in all fields. Space exploration. Green energy and fighting climate change. Vaccine diplomacy. Semiconductor chips, whose highly prized 7 nanometer variants China figured out how to make on its own a few weeks ago, making sanctions ineffective. Infrastructure. Artificial intelligence. Number of STEM graduates. Number of new scientific papers. Everything.

中国用自己的努力告诉我们，GDP也可以是衡量一个国家地位和进步的毫无意义的标准。我们应该用一些新的标准来展示国家的发展潜力。

中国在所有领域的势头都很强劲。太空探索、绿色能源、应对气候变化、疫苗外交、半导体芯片（中国在几周前找到了国产7纳米级芯片的方法，美国的制裁不再具有威胁了）、基础设施、人工智能、STEM毕业生人数、新的科学论文数量等等，所有的一切都领先全球了。

The world is returning to the norm it had in ancient and mediaeval times when bronze-making, paper, banknotes, the compass, printing press, crossbow, gunpowder, rocket, seismograph, toothbrush, umbrella, seed drill, mechanical clock, matches, kites, waterwheels, etc. were all first invented in China and arrived in Europe many centuries later. After losing its frontal position for 400 years, Chinese innovation is back and once again it's taking the lead.

世界现在又回归到古代和中世纪的常态，当时的青铜器、纸张、纸币、指南针、印刷机、弓弩、火药、火箭、地震仪、牙刷、雨伞、播种机、机械钟、火柴、风筝、水车等都是由中国发明的，几个世纪后才传到欧洲。中国在400年前失去领先地位后，又带着创新杀回来了，再次领先全球。

Jack Robin

Yesterday,I had hot pot with my classmates in chengdu,China. After eating, some food left over and I chatted with them over beer. Then there was a woman, about forty years old, standing at our table all the time. I don't care. Then she was embarrassed to say that do you have leftovers to eat? I was surprised that I didn't respond for a moment. Then she repeated that she hadn't eaten for two days. Shocked , I asked her to sit down and she wolfed. I ordered two more dishes and ordered a beef. She's all finished. I packed her two more fried rice. Then I gave her all my change. As a poor student, I has no money either. When checking out, the boss insisted on not accepting the money of extra food and fried rice. There are many poor people in China. They hide where you can't see them. Many people try their best to leave those poor places, some succeed, some fail, their descendants are migrant workers when they are young, and they will return to the place where they were born in silence when they are old.

昨天，我和同学在中国成都吃火锅。我们吃完后，桌上还剩了一些食物，我们边喝啤酒边聊天，有个四十岁左右的女人一直站在我们的桌子旁。我当时并未在意。可她不好意思地说，你们有剩菜给我吃吗？我很惊讶，一时不知如何回应。她又说了一遍，说自己已经两天没吃东西了。

我震惊了，赶紧请她坐下，她就狼吞虎咽地吃了起来。于是我又加点了两道菜，还要了一份牛肉。她全都吃光了。我又给她打包了两份炒饭，还给了她身上所有的零钱。

作为一个穷学生，我也不富裕。我买单的时候，老板坚持不收加餐和炒饭的钱。中国现在还有很多穷人。他们只是隐身在你看不见的地方。

很多人想尽办法逃离那些贫困地区，有的成功了，有的失败了，他们的后代年轻时是农民工，年老了也只能默默回到他们出生的地方。

Peter Breton

Are Chinese very poor? Yes. Is China, the government, very poor? No.

I’ve seen some anti-China Quorans try and tell Chinese Quorans that China is very poor because it barely scrapes over $10,000 USD in GDP per capita. The Chinese Quorans, in turn, snap back by stating the cost of living in China is much cheaper than America, and China’s second rank in nominal GDP proves that they are actually the rich and successful ones.

中国人穷吗？很穷。中国这个国家穷吗？不穷。

我看到有些反华的Quora用户企图跟中国Quora用户洗脑说中国很穷，因为中国的人均GDP才勉强超过1万美元。而中国的Quora用户就会反驳说，中国的生活成本比美国便宜得多，中国的名义GDP排名全球第二，证明中国是富裕的。

Unfortunately both of them are wrong.

To calculate how rich a country’s citizens are, you don’t look at GDP, nor nominal GDP, nor GDP per capita, nor PPP. Instead, you combine all of them together.

Gross domestic product by purchasing power parity per capita is the probably the best metric we have right now. It combines the purchasing power parity (PPP) value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given year, divided by the average (or mid-year) population for the same year.

In layman’s terms: how well the average citizen can provide for himself.

可惜他们都错了。

要计算一个国家的公民有多富有，不是单看GDP、名义GDP、人均GDP或购买力平价。相反，你得把它们都组合在一起看。

按人均购买力平价计算的GDP可能是目前最好的测算标准，将一个国家在某一年生产的所有最终商品和服务的购买力平价价值除以同年的平均人口。

用外行的话来说就是：普通公民能养活自己的程度。

(Data from 2018)

2018年的数据

In ranking 228 of the world’s countries and territories, China comes in at 97th place. This means Chinese citizens are about as rich as Mexcans, Belarusians, and Thais.

In case you’re curious, Americans are the 13th richest citizens in the world. Luxembourgers are the richest. My dear Canada comes in at a lukewarm 31st place. Hmm. :/

Now, if you interpreted the question “Is China very poor?” as “How much weight can the chinese throw around?” then no, China is not poor at all. In terms of raw nominal GDP (how much wealth the government has), China is in 2nd place, only behind the US and catching up fast.

在全球228个国家和地区的排名中，中国名列第97位。这意味着中国公民的经济状况和墨西哥人、白俄罗斯人和泰国人差不多。

可能你会好奇，美国人排在第13位。卢森堡人是最富裕的。我亲爱的加拿大只排在不温不火的31位。

现在，如果你把“中国很穷吗?”这个问题解读为“中国这个国家能施加多大的影响力?”

那么中国一点都不穷。

就原始名义GDP(政府拥有的财富)而言，中国排在全球第二位，仅次于美国，而且正在迅速赶超。

So it depends on what your priorities are. Both are obviously important. GDP by PPP per Capita is important because you want your citizens to live a good life but nominal GDP is important in case some other country tries to bully you.

Luxembourgers are wealthier than Americans, but America could conquer Luxembourg by force if it wanted to. Just an example.

所以这取决于你想优先发展哪一方面。两者显然都很重要。人均购买力平价GDP很重要，因为每个国家都想让自己的公民过上好日子，但名义GDP也很重要，否则其他国家可能就会欺负你。

卢森堡人比美国人富裕，但如果美国想，就可以用武力征服卢森堡。只是举个例子而已。

Chinese citizens may not have either wealth nor purchasing power, but their government is certainly not easily coerced by foreign powers. So I guess there’s your answer.

Btw, 97th place out of 228 still makes them richer than the global average. So “very poor” might be a bit of a stretch. Perhaps drop the “very.”

中国公民可能既没有财富也没有购买力，但他们的国家肯定不会轻易受到外国势力的胁迫。我想这就是你想要的答案。

顺便说一句，中国在228个国家中排名第97，还是高于全球平均水平的。所以说中国“很穷”可能有点牵强。把“非常”这个修饰词去掉可能更好些。

Peter Kaye

No, how can China as a country be poor when they have the second largest economy on the planet? PLUS, they are still growing and will pass the USA as the top economy very soon, they have been number one, in GDP PPP, already since 2014, and that is actually the one that counts, for it’s what you can buy with your money that counts, doesn’t it? So NO, China is the most affluent nation on earth. consider this, they are the biggest trading partner to just about every country on the planet, that alone must make them very wealthy.

不，中国是世界第二大经济体，怎么可能会穷呢？另外，他们一直保持增长，很快就会超过美国成为全球最大的经济体了。自2014年以来，中国的GDP购买力平价一直排名全球第一，这才是最重要的指标，因为你能用自己的钱买到多少东西才是最重要的，不是吗？所以中国是地球上最富裕的国家。中国是全世界几乎所有国家最大的贸易伙伴，单凭这一点就足以让他们非常富裕了。

so no, there is nothing poor about China. But like every country they have very rich but also very poor, which country doesn’t?

所以，不，中国一点儿也不穷。但是每个国家都有富人和穷人，哪个国家不是这样呢？

Jason Stacy

My personal opinion is that China is like the US was, 75 years ago. Back then, places like Pittsburgh were heavily polluted (it was once described as “hell with the lid off”). But now Pittsburgh is a pretty and green place, and it’s known more for its status as a university/medical town than its heavy industry. The reason why is that it (and the country it is part of) has moved beyond heavy industry as the primary economic driving force. Every wealthy nation has followed the same path: they first rely on agriculture, then become industrialized, and finally outsource the heavy manufacturing and become a services economy. I think China’s firmly in the second position, and its larger cities are post-industrial service cities. Give it another 20 or 30 years: China will be where we are, now. Most nations have followed this path…

我个人的看法是，中国很像75年前的美国。当时匹兹堡等地污染严重(这里曾被形容为“没有盖子的地狱”)。但现在的匹兹堡是一个美丽盎然的地方，如今它作为大学和医疗城的地位比重工业更为出名。这是因为它(以及它所在的国家)已经不再把重工业作为主要的经济驱动力。每个富裕国家都走过同样的道路：先是依靠农业，然后进行工业化，最后外包重工业，成为服务型经济。我认为中国稳居第二的位置，中国的大城市现在已经是后工业服务型城市了。再过二三十年，中国就会进入我们现在这个阶段了。大多数国家都是这么发展的……

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