Why is China such an economic powerhouse? Is it purely a result of their population and cheap labor force, or are there extensive natural resources that I'm not considering?

为什么中国经济这么强大？单纯因为他们的人口和廉价劳动力吗，还是因为他们拥有丰富的自然资源？

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Andreas

For example Germany has 83 million people with a workforce of 46 million. The German economy is just under $4 trillion. This works out at about $50,000 per capita.

China has 1.4 billion people with a workforce of 807 million. The Chinese economy is $23 trillion. This works out at about $16,500 per capita.

Germany does not have a “giant economy” like China because it does not have 1.4 billion people. If China had only 83 million people like Germany does it’s economy would be only $1.3 trillion in size. Australia’s economy at $1.35 trillion would be larger and Australia has only 25 million people.

举个例子，德国有8300万人口，劳动力总数有4600万。德国的经济规模略低于4万亿美元，人均约为5万美元。

中国有14亿人口，劳动力总数有8.07亿。中国的经济规模是23万亿美元，人均16500美元。

德国没有中国那样的“巨型经济体”，因为德国没有14亿人口。如果中国像德国一样只有8300万人口，那么中国的经济规模就只剩下1.3万亿美元。

而澳大利亚的经济会超过中国，因为澳大利亚的经济规模为1.35万亿美元，但只有2500万人口。

Demographics matter. If China had only 83 million people hardly anyone would be talking about China.

Chinese people living on less than $5.50 a day is over 340 million people.

That’s the second largest population of people that are living in deep severe poverty in the world.

Less than 1% of the population is this poor in the U.K. for example and even less in the top western countries.

Huge population and mass slave labour is the SOLE reason for China high total GDP.

人口是个重要原因。如果中国只有8300万人口，那么没有人会在意中国的。

日生活费低于5.5美元的中国人超过了3.4亿。

极度贫困人口数量是全球第二多。

英国只有不到1%的极度贫困人口，西方发达国家的极度贫困人口就更少了。

庞大的人口和大量的劳动力是推高中国GDP的唯一原因。

RED HANDED

China has 3 reasons that are seldom explained & mostly unknown to most foreigners.

中国有三个原因很少被提及，大多数外国人都不知道。

China has the most numerous, most comprehensive in variety, as well as largest mega factories in the world, prior to the 80s. Many of these factories are size of towns in the west, employing 10,000 to 100,000 workers each. Largely due to the dogmatic socialist policy of industrial independence from other countries. For example every city or county will have its on independent factories making knives. Just making knifes alone there are literally over 1000 separate independent factories, and its true for virtually every single product needed. However, most of these factories were outdated, low quality & unproductive.

在80年代之前，中国就已经拥有世界上数量最多、品种最齐全、规模最大的大型工厂了。这些工厂有不少都有西部城镇那么大的规模，雇佣1万到10万名工人不等。例如，每个城市或县都有自己的独立刀具厂。单单刀具厂就超过了1000家，几乎所有商品都是如此。但是这些工厂大多都已过时，质量不高，生产效率低下。

Democratic Chinese states like Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau & Singapore are some of the wealthiest & most productive industrial economies in the world. As well as millions of affluents 2nd & 3rd generation chinese migrants living in various countries in SE Asia, Americas & Europe, who are mostly very loyal and nationalistic towards their Chinese homeland. They were eager to relocate their factories to China, as well as to invest & share their know how with their fellow chinese. Within a short period of time China has access to manufacturing expertise, foreign market & capitak investment that is unprecedented in the world.

中国台湾、中国香港、中国澳门和新加坡等华人地区跻身全球最富有、最具生产力的工业经济体之列。数百万富裕的第二代和第三代中国移民生活在东南亚、美洲和欧洲的各个国家，他们大多对中国非常忠诚，非常爱国。他们渴望将工厂迁往中国，进行投资并向中国同胞分享他们的技术。于是在很短的时间内，中国获得了世界上先进的制造技术、国外市场和资本投资。

China provided the world largest untap market with over 1 billion people. Many foreign manufacturers were eager to invest & set up manufacturing in China, allowing for even more knowledge transfer that is also unprecedented in modern history.

中国拥有超过10亿人口，是全球最大的潜在市场。许多外国制造商希望在中国投资和建立制造业，进行知识传播，这在现代历史上也是前所未闻的事。

All these allowed China to quickly rise in productivity, as well as provide the world largest & most comprehensive supply chain in low & medium tech industries.

But for anyone who truly understand economics, these are only impressive in quantity & speed, but not in quality. Chinese per cap GDP is no different than that of Russia or Malaysia. Another words China’s economic performance is no different than those 2 countries. But because China has a population of 1.4 billion people, compared to others its rise seem impressive or meteoric. If China’s population is only 20-100 millions, its would not be newsworthy.

这些因素推动中国的生产率迅速提高，并在中低技术产业中提供了全球最大和最全面的供应链。

但对于所有真正了解经济学的人来说，令人印象深刻的只是数量和速度，而非质量。中国的人均GDP与俄罗斯或马来西亚差不多。换句话说，中国的经济表现和这两个国家也没有什么不同。但因为中国有14亿人口，所以跟其他国家相比，中国的崛起似乎令人印象深刻，速度极快。如果中国人口只有2000万到1亿，压根都不值得报道了。

Ranjan Manas

1. Scholars say that China's "soft power" has contributed to its rise in the 21st century.

2. The country has the largest reserves of coal and natural gas in the world.

3. China is the world's largest producer of rare earth elements.

1. 学者们说，是中国的“软实力”促成了中国在21世纪的崛起。

2. 中国拥有全球最大的煤炭和天然气储量。

3. 中国是全球最大的稀土生产国。

Robert J. Kolker

Originally Answered: Why is China such an economic powerhouse?

为什么中国能成为这样一个经济强国？

Before you declare China a "powerhouse" first see how they handle the problems of rural poverty and the degradation of their croplands. They have a lot of serious economic and environmental problems that need addressing.

China has made rapid progress in creating an urban middle and upper class which is quite prosperous. That that is only about 300,000,000 of their 1.25 billion people that have advanced economically. see how the other 900,000,000 people make out before you declare China an economic champion.

在你认定中国是一个“强国”之前，先看看他们是如何处理农村贫困人口和农田退化问题的。中国有很多严重的经济和环境问题亟需解决。

中国在创建城市中上层富裕阶级方面取得了长足发展。在中国12.5亿人口中，只有3亿人实现了经济进步。在你认定中国是经济冠军之前，先看看其他9亿人过的是什么生活。

Joseph Wang

Originally Answered: Why is China such an economic powerhouse?

Nigeria has a large population, cheap labor force, and even more natural resources.

为什么中国能成为这样一个经济强国？

尼日利亚人口众多，劳动力廉价，自然资源比中国更丰富。

Two items here:

1) A government that (by third world standards) is clean, effective, and efficient. The amount of corruption is shocking if you compare to Vermont, but the Chines government looks very good if you compare to Nigeria or Pakistan.

2) Well educated workforce and first world level infrastructure.

原因有两点：

1) 中国有一个(按照第三世界标准而言)廉洁、实干、高效的政府。如果跟佛蒙特州相比，中国的腐败现象还是令人震惊，但如果跟尼日利亚或巴基斯坦相比，中国已经算很好的了。

2) 受过良好教育的劳动力和世界一流的基础设施。

And the big one....

1) Sooner or later someone was going to get it right. China has been trying and failing to come up with a workable political/economic system for over a century. China has tried a lot of different system and most of them have been disasters. If you keep trying then sooner or later you get it right.

另外还有一个很大的原因....

1)    早晚能取得成功。一个多世纪以来，中国一直努力打造可行的政治和经济体系，但尚未成功。中国尝试了很多不同的制度，多数都以失败告终。但如果你坚持不懈、不断尝试，迟早能取得成功。

Alfred W Croucher

China's economic development has been held back for centuries due to the Ming dynasty reverting to Han dynasty thinking after the extraordinary technological and scientific development of the Tang and Song.

For a millennium or more China had been the world's leading manufacturer and exporter as well as one of the most advanced in technology and science. During this time a synthesis of Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism called Neo-Confucianism had produced a forward looking, science based approach to develo Chinese society. But this was lost in the Qing in a strong reversion to a re-purified Han Confucianism called 汉学。

中国的经济发展已经停滞了几个世纪，因为继唐宋时期获得非凡的科技发展之后，明朝又回归了汉朝的理念。

一千多年来，中国一直是全球领先的制造业和出口国，也是科技最为先进的国家之一。在此期间，佛教、道教和儒学相互融合，被称为新儒学，总结出一种前瞻性的、以科学为基础的方法推动中国社会的发展。但清朝又用一种被称为“汉代儒学”的旧制取代了新儒学。

Chinese intellectuals brought up influenced by the West in the 20th century believed that it was Confucianism which prevented China's transformation into a powerful modern country which could compete on equal terms with Europe, the U.S. and a resurgent and aggressive Japan.

They determined they needed to smash traditional thinking as defined by Confucianism in order to bring about progressive forces and make China powerful again.

20世纪受西方影响长大的中国知识分子认为，正是儒家思想阻碍了中国向现代强国的转变，导致中国无法跟欧洲、美国和复兴和侵略的日本抗衡。

他们决定要粉碎以儒家思想为代表的传统思想，引入进步的力量，让中国再次崛起。

Partly as a result of the 21 demands of Japan in 1915 and the betrayal of China at the Versailes treaty in 1919, China's activists lurched towards Socialist Revolution. But the first half of the century saw a China which had no central government and warlords, inheritors of the modern armies set up by late Qing reform, ruled for their own selfish interest.

First China had to be united, and this was the great achievement of the Co unists. The pragmatic idea that military power was needed to establish central political power.

在一定程度上，由于日本在1915年提出的21项要求、并于1919年在凡尔赛条约中出卖中国，中国的活动人士才迅速展开社 会主义革命。但在20世纪上半叶，中国各大军阀（前身为清末革新时成立的现代军队）为各自的私利割据一方。

第一，中国必须统一，这是中国人的伟大成就。实用主义的观点认为军事力量才是建立中央政权的必要条件。

Hence until in 1978, the pragmatists returned to power to complete the freeing of market forces, to open China to foreign investment, to free the business talents of intelligent and resourceful Chinese, to allow China to return again to being the major manufacturer and exporter, and ultimately a major centre of scientific research and technological development.

1978年实用主义者重新上台，最终成功解放了市场力量，向外国投资敞开中国的大门，聪明的商业人才和机智的中国人终于可以放手拼搏，让中国再度成为全球主要的制造商和出口国，并最终发展成主要的科学研究和技术发展中心。

Swagato Barman Roy

China has a population of almost four times and a considerably larger land area compared to US. And the land is blessed with plenty of natural resource, mineral. They have a hard working population who produce a lot and consume less (as seen in the trade surplus). It is just expected that they will have a bigger economy than the US.

中国的人口几乎是美国的四倍，国土面积也比美国大得多。这片土地拥有丰富的自然资源和矿产。中国有勤劳的人民，他们努力工作，勤俭消费(从贸易顺差中就可以看出这一点)。大家普遍认为中国的经济规模将超过美国。

John Master

Originally Answered: Why is China such an economic powerhouse?

It has embraced Free Market ideas, has a cheap currency which makes exports easier, and has crushed the Labor Unions.

为什么中国能成为这样一个经济强国？

因为中国已经信奉自由市场思想，人民币是便利出口的廉价货币，还取消了工会。

Edwin

I don't dispute the fact that China has developed enormously over the past several decades, but its starting point was so low that even double-digit economic growth for decades still leaves it comparatively poor, underdeveloped, and with a whole mess of other problems (sanitation, pollution) compared to developed countries, even in the most highly developed mainland cities. China is a develo country.

我不否认中国在过去几十年里取得了惊人的发展，但主要还是因为中国的起点太低了。在过去几十年里，就算中国保持两位数的经济增长速度，至今依然相对贫穷、欠发达，和发达国家相比，中国最发达的城市也还存在着一大堆问题(卫生、污染)。中国就是一个发展中国家。

Also, poverty and middle class are measured quite differently in China than in say the US for example. What is considred to be poor in China is almost nonexstant in the US. What is considered to be middle class in China is mostly considered poverty by the US government.

另外，中国对贫困和中产阶级的判定标准也跟美国截然不同。中国所谓的贫困在美国几乎难觅踪迹，而中国所谓的中产阶级，在美国政府看来大多也还只是穷人而已。