Australian imperialism and the rise of China
The rise of China has been of enormous significance for the Australian capitalist class. The Sydney Morning Herald’s Ross Gittins outlines three major reasons why the East Asian giant now matters for Australian capitalism. First is its sheer size. With a population of 1.35 billion, it has 20 per cent of the world’s population and is 11 times larger than Australia’s second largest trading partner, Japan. Second, the Chinese economy has grown by 10 per cent a year for three decades, roughly doubling in size every eight years. It has gone from being only 9 per cent of the size of the US economy in 1980 to 60 per cent in 2009, and the IMF anticipates that it will overtake the US by 2016 (in purchasing power parity terms), although it still lags the US substantially when GDP is measured by market exchange rates.[1] Combining its huge population with its rapid economic growth, China has made a major contribution to world economic development in the past decade: about one quarter of the entire growth in the world economy in the 2000s was attributed to China. Third, Australia and China are complementary economies: each has goods and commodities that the other needs – minerals and manufactures (and capital) respectively. China is also now Australia’s largest market for services as well.
Year of publication: |
2011-01-01
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Authors: | Bramble, Tom |
Publisher: |
Socialist Alternative |
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