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Rich China, poor China conundrum as clout grows
Sun Apr 5, 2009 8:26pm EDT
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By Paul Eckert, Asia Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Success in winning China's help with global tasks like reviving the world economy or fighting climate change can depend on which China you're talking to: the established economic powerhouse or the developing country.
China the new power holds $2 trillion in foreign reserves, including about $1 trillion in U.S. debt, and increasingly lectures rich nations on economic management. Developing China has tens of millions of rural poor among its 1.3 billion people and falls in the same World Bank per capita income rankings as Cameroon and Guatemala.
The emergence of China as a heavyweight economic player with a relatively poor population has economists scrambling for new definitions, perplexes policymakers in other countries and has some competitors crying foul.
"I can't think of any other instances where an economy at this relative level of development compared to the other leading countries in the world had such a large role to play in terms of world trade, world finance and overall contribution to the world economy," said Eswar Prasad of Cornell University.
The World Bank groups China among lower-middle-income countries, with $936-3,705 in annual per capita income, based on 2007 data. Countries such as Bolivia, India, Morocco and Syria are also in that grouping of lower-income countries.
The United Nations Statistics Division counts all of Asia excluding Japan as developing countries. China is a developing country under the International Monetary Fund's criteria.
"It's a fair thing for China to say 'We're not rich yet,' and we have to deal with that," said trade expert Derek Scissors of the Heritage Foundation.
Nevertheless, China has raised eyebrows when it appeared to be demanding more rights as an unquestioned economic power while pleading poverty when asked to shoulder greater obligations.
CHANGING THE CONVERSATION
Steve Dunaway, a Council on Foreign Relations scholar, saw this a lot in his former job as IMF China mission chief.
China's line was "that as the number three economy in the world, they want a bigger say in the world economy. But when the discussion came up about additional resources for the IMF, the conversation switched back to per capita income," he said.
China overtook wealthy Germany in 2007 to become the world's third-largest economy behind and the United States and Japan. With Japan sputtering, some economists see China overtaking that rich country by 2012.
In an ongoing debate about funding the United Nations, U.S. critics note that China pays just over two percent of the annual U.N. budget, while the United States pays 25 percent.
Ahead of last week's London G20 summit, senior Chinese leader Wang Qishan reiterated Beijing's call for more power at the IMF. He said China's contributions to the fund should be based on per capita economic output -- not on the size of its $2 trillion in reserves -- the most in the world.
China ended up contributing $40 billion to the IMF kitty for economically troubled countries and won promised reforms that will give China more clout at the fund. Continued...
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