The New Frontier

This evening my husband and I attended an interesting program. The keynote speaker spoke about China. He told us how the opening of China is fueling our US economy due to the demand there for products used to fill the needs of their growth. There is an industrial revolution going on there. For more than 20 consecutive years, China’s economy has grown by more than 9 % a year, one of the fastest rates of economic growth in history. There will be a demand of the world’s commodities, aluminum, iron ore and copper. There is a city the size of Boston being created there every two weeks! China’s industrialization parallels the US industrial revolution of the 1890’s. It’s possible their modernization will be accomplished in less than one generation, because they are using the technology that we already have. Two large airports are to be built in western China, which will be larger than any in the world, Caterpillar has a contract to deliver 1500 cranes at over million dollars each. The airports are to be in place for the anticipated growth of cities in that area that is mostly rural now. It is like our western frontier was in the 1800’s! Fed Ex and UPS are financing the airports so that they will be in position to move products. China will be encouraging the unemployed to move to newly urbanized areas that will be built in Western China for employment.

Three interconnected themes – from industrialization to modernization – population, consumption and growth, are speeding China’s transformation from an industrialized to a modern economy.

All of this will be affecting the economy of The United States. We are, indeed, in a global community!