Filed under: China
In the late 1970s, Deng Xiaoping took a great step forward: he decided to open China up to the outside world. Neit
her he nor anyone else could have realized what the global repercussions of this move would be. China has not conquered the world with a great army, but instead with its assembly plants and with the opening up of its markets. Over the last 25 years, the country has experienced a nearly two-figure annual growth rate, releasing around 500 million people from the most abject poverty (and turning them into the potential customers of a globalised world).
Today it is the world’s second-largest trading power, the largest recipient of direct foreign investment and the second-largest consumer of oil products. Its voracious appetite for raw materials has upset international markets: China now buys 40% of the world’s cement, quarter of its aluminum and nearly a third of its iron ore. (more…)
