...streets of Beijing were filled with millions of uniformly blue-clad bicyclists, seemingly in no hurry to go anywhere. Shopping opportunities, such as they were, were mainly in the Friendship Store, with its sullen staff. Party cells embedded in every work unit controlled most aspects of people's lives through rationing of basic commodities, such as housing, medical care, grain, sugar, and cooking oil, and through an intrusive network of surveillance. China existed in a parallel, self-contained universe.

In the 25 years since then, China arguably has transformed itself more thoroughly and more rapidly than any society in history. Two and a half decades of growth generally estimated at 9.5% annually have made China the world's third largest economy, and its third largest trading country. Some 400 million people have been lifted out of poverty. China is now the largest, or second largest, target of foreign direct investment in the world. America's Fortune 500 and their Asian, Canadian, and European equivalents have beaten down the door to China, primarily to benefit from its enormous market but also to use it as a base of production for export. China now moves financial and commodity markets, underpins world economic growth, and has transformed the world economy as it has transformed itself.

For producers of minerals and commodities China's voracious manufacturing and construction sectors have meant much-welcomed increases in prices. For the U.S., Canada and Europe the impact has been substantially positive, depending on the sector. China is overwhelmingly the fastest growing export market for the U.S. However for countries whose economies depend on the production of labor-intensive products, like Mexico, it has meant massive plant closings and job losses.

As China has concentrated overwhelmingly on economic growth in the last two and...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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