The Chinese economy's still not that much of a consumer economy.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Contrary to what you might think, China's economy is relatively less efficient, and more polluting, than those of rich countries.
China also has moved away from its original status of purely producing basic, what you call, consumer commodities and Chinese companies are moving beyond China to various parts of the world.
The way China is looking to boost consumer spending is astounding. They are going to boost the minimum wage by 13 percent a year every year for five years... I don't know if people realize how dramatic that is.
The American consumer, even today, the weight of the American consumer in the global economy is China plus India doubled. So, it's tough to replace that.
President Bush has said that the economy is growing, that there are jobs out there. But you know, it's a long commute to China to get those jobs.
Clearly, the Chinese need the resources, but I don't think they want to clash with the industrial world which happens to be the market for their goods.
We can pretend that China is not there. But China is there, and unless we put our economy on the right track, it is going to overwhelm us completely.
Some people think that as the Chinese economy becomes more and more capitalistic it will inevitably become more democratic.
The Chinese consumer is everybody. It's very simple.
You know, without China there is no Wal-Mart and without Wal-Mart there is no middle class and lower class prosperity in the United States.