CHINA'S rise as the world's second-largest economy highlights a new post-industrial reality: Population counts as much as productivity in determining economic power.
China has 11 times Japan's population. That is enough to propel it ahead of Japan in the GDP rankings, despite a per capita income of little more than one-tenth the level of Japan.
For China to leap ahead of the US, which has one-fourth China's population, China needs to boost its per capita GDP to slightly more than one-fourth US levels. Currently, China's per capita income is one-eleventh the level of the US.
