Will China ever become as rich as the U.S.?

Twenty years ago, a visitor to Beijing would have been struck by the bicycle’s popularity as a form of mass transportation. Today, auto congestion and pollution on the increasingly clogged roads of China’s capital city are pervasive features. In a little more than three decades, China has transformed itself from a largely closed agrarian society to an urban exporting nation commonly viewed as the workshop of the world. ; At current growth rates, China will be the world’s largest economy sometime in the next decade. But will it ever be the richest? Though providing a definitive answer is difficult—at least in terms of standard of living—examining how China and other developing economies grow offers insight into how, with maturity, these nations may approach the technological leadership and, by extension, the standard of living of the U.S.