Global eller kinesisk?

Forrige nummer av The Economist har en tankevekkende artikkel, "The Chinese century is well under way", om hvor stor betydning Kina har fått i verden de siste tiårene, ikke minst når det gjelder bidraget til global økonomisk vekst, produksjon og utslipp. Verdens økonomiske tyngdepunkt flytter seg.

Aritikkelens undertittel er "Many trends that appear global are in fact mostly Chinese". Med det mener The Economist at Kinas størrelse er så stor at sterke trender eller kraftige endringer der forplanter seg inn i globale statistikker, selv om den samme trenden ikke er på langt nær så sterk andre steder.

The Economist peker på fem områder der Kinas utvikling setter sitt preg på de globale statistikkene: BNP-vekst, fattigdomsreduksjon, patentsøknader, militærutgifter og CO2-utslipp, og skriver at:

"Because China is so populous and is developing so quickly, it is responsible for a remarkable share of global change. Since the start of the financial crisis in 2008, for example, China has accounted for 45% of the gain in world gdp. In 1990 some 750m Chinese people lived in extreme poverty; today fewer than 10m do. That represents two-thirds of the world’s decline in poverty during that time. China is also responsible for half of the total increase in patent applications over the same period. For all its talk of a “peaceful rise”, China has steadily beefed up its military investment—even as the rest of the world cut back after the end of the cold war. As a result, the People’s Liberation Army accounts for over 60% of the total increase in global defence spending since 1990. And all of this growth has come at a considerable cost to the environment: China is also the source of 55% of the increase in the world’s carbon emissions since 1990."