China development compared to Japan, South Korea and Taiwan

The Economist magazine looks a tChina’s accumulated more capital per worker versus other fast-growing countries had at a similar stage of development. But it also has many stages of development ahead of it. Its capital stock per worker is only about a quarter of South Korea’s, for example. As the economy grows, big problems tend to diminish in its rear-view mirror. In 1998 up to 40% of China’s loans turned sour. Cleaning up the mess cost 5 trillion yuan, or 58% of China’s 1998 GDP. But China’s growth makes molehills out of mountains: 5 trillion yuan now represents less than 9% of its GDP. New production quickly eclipses the old. Indeed, of all the goods and services ever produced by the People’s Republic of China, over 30% were churned out in the four years since 2010.


The Brookings Institute has a more detailed paper that compares China with Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. (27 pages, Oct 2013)

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