East Asia has risen to become the new center of the global economy.
The post-World War II global economy has undergone tremendous changes, with Japan and Germany rising from the ashes to return to the ranks of world powersThe Asian Tigers and the Tigers have risen to become a new growth pole for the global economyThe most spectacular is the rapid growth of China's economy, which has completely changed the strategic map of the global economy and made East Asia a new center of the global economy.
According to the World Bank in 2021, the total global GDP reached 94 trillion US dollars, of which the United States accounted for 23 trillion US dollars, accounting for 24%, ranking first;China is 1773 trillion US dollars, accounting for 18%, ranking second;Japan is 4938 trillion US dollars, accounting for 52%, remaining third;Germany is 4215 trillion US dollars, accounting for 45%, remaining fourth.
From the perspective of the world's three largest wealthies, China, Japan, South Korea and ASEAN account for 30% of the world's total GDP, the United States, Mexico and Canada account for 27% of the world's total GDP, and the European Union plus the United Kingdom and Russia account for 23% of the world's total GDP.
Between this increase and decrease, the shift of the center of the world economy is more pronounced, from west to east. Behind this historic shift in economic centers, we see four major economic miracles on the post-World War II world economic stage: the German economic miracle, the Japanese economic miracle, the Asian Tigers and the Four Little Tigers, and the Chinese economic miracle.
These four miracles, one in Europe and three in East Asia, constitute the most spectacular spectacle on the world economic stage today, and have also attracted the attention of the whole world.
Konrad Adenauer, creator of Germany's post-war economic miracle. After the defeat of Germany, Adenauer worked hard to get Germany out of the predicament step by step with superhuman perseverance and flexible principles.
He paid attention to domestic unity and stability and drew everyone's attention to economic development. He was adept at creating a favorable international environment for Germany's development, and agreed with French Foreign Minister Robert Schumann to establish an international authority to bring most of Europe's steel and coal production under joint control, an unprecedented arrangement that led to the birth of the European Community, and the unity of France, Germany and Europe.
Adenauer took the initiative to strengthen communication with the United States, reduce American hostility towards Germany, and win American support for the German economy. The Marshall Plan in the early post-war period increased German industrial funding, expanded employment, increased tax revenues, introduced new technologies and equipment, and accelerated the development of the German economy.
Konrad Adenauer's vision, flexibility and perseverance helped Germany achieve phenomenal economic growth in the nearly 30 years since the end of the war.
Japan's Postwar Economic Miracle: From Ruins to the World's Second Economy After World War II, Japan began to rebuild its economy in ruins. Since 1954, Japan's economy has maintained an average annual rate of 94% growth rate, with 8 years of growth exceeding 10%.
In 1968, Japan surpassed Germany to become the second largest economic power in the capitalist world after the United StatesIn 1978, it surpassed the Soviet Union to become the world's second largest economy.
None of the Western countries during this period had an economic growth rate of more than 10%. This can be called an economic miracle. The three major events of Japan's period of rapid economic growth include the construction of the Tokaido Shinkansen in 1958, the Tokyo Olympics in 1964, and the Osaka World Expo in 1970.
These events demonstrated Japan's strength and influence during the post-war economic boom. One of the reasons for Japan's economic rise was that it seized three major strategic opportunities: the Korean War brought Japan a large number of opportunities for the production of armaments;The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union deeply integrated Japan into the American system;Japan was the first to industrialize in East Asia, and its products were sold all over the world, bringing wealth to Japan.
Intrinsic to Japan's rise was the combination of traditional cultures such as frugal savings, hard work, reduced spending, and innovative entrepreneurship with a relatively free post-World War II world.
Despite Japan's scarcity of natural resources, the Japanese economy has grown rapidly through the free world** of importing raw materials, processing and exporting products. However, the good times were short-lived.
After the signing of the Plaza Accord in 1985, the yen appreciated rapidly, Japan was still intoxicated with the success of industrialization when the third global scientific and technological revolution came, and when the Internet industry and new energy industry in China and the United States rose rapidly, Japan's traditional manufacturing industry is increasingly losing its competitiveness.
After the 90s, Japan's bubble economy burst, and since then it has entered one lost decade after another.
East Asia's Economic Miracle: The Leap from Backward Countries to Newly Industrialized Countries From the 60s to the 80s of the 20th century, the Asian "Four Tigers" economies (Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, China) made the leap from backward countries to newly industrialized countries, which can be called a miracle in the history of world economic development.
These economies have achieved economic take-off in a short period of time by pursuing export-oriented strategies and focusing on the development of labour-intensive processing industries. Taking South Korea as an example, from 1971 to 1981, South Korea shifted the strategic focus of South Korea's industrial development to heavy industries such as steel, shipbuilding, and chemicals, creating world-renowned multinational groups such as Posco, Samsung, LG and Hyundai, and South Korea's economy really began to take off from this time.
From 1985 to 1990, South Korea's per capita GDP increased from $2,300 to $6,300, and it became a completely newly industrialized country.
This process of development has been called the miracle of the Han River by historians. After the 80s of the 20th century, the rapid growth of Southeast Asian economies led to the emergence of the so-called Asian Tigers, including Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines.
In 1993, the World Bank released a report entitled "The Miracle of East Asia", which attributed this remarkable economic achievement to the East Asian model, which was the first time in history that East Asia was linked to some kind of economic growth phenomenon, representing a successful developmentalist concept.
From a global perspective, the world's three major economic circles, North America, Western Europe, and East Asia, are becoming more and more important, and the center of the world economy will gradually shift to East Asia.
In less than a hundred years since World War II, although the world's major plates have made progress compared with the past, the gap between the world's three major economic circles is still widening
China's economic miracle began in the 80s of the last century, and the most striking thing about global economic growth is the rapid rise of China's economy. China's economy has maintained rapid growth for more than 40 consecutive years, demonstrating its unparalleled resilience, which is the greatest miracle of our time, which is remarkable.
Today, China is the world's second-largest economy, with a GDP of 177 trillion US dollars, accounting for 18% of the world economy and 75% of the US economy, more than three times the total GDP of Japan, and per capita GDP has reached 10,000 US dollars for two consecutive years, ranking among the ranks of upper-middle-income countries, which is an unprecedented high.
In the field of traditional industries, China has come from behind, and many indicators have reached the first place in the world. In 2021, China's crude steel production reached 103.3 billion tons, accounting for 53% of the world's total output, ranking first in the world, China's crude steel output is already 15 times that of the United States.
China's shipbuilding completions rank first in the world, accounting for 41% of the world's total shipbuildingChina's automobile production has been ranked first in the world for six consecutive years, accounting for 25% of the world's total outputIn the field of new industries, China has achieved corner overtaking and leading the world in many fields.
For example, China's consumer drones account for 70% of the global market;Chinese mobile phones account for 75% of the world's total production;The number of new energy vehicles in China is about 5.8 million, accounting for 50% of the total number of new energy vehicles in the worldChina's photovoltaic industry controls 70% of the total global market and has the absolute right to speak in the market.
Over the past 40 years of reform and opening up, China's economy has developed by leaps and bounds, becoming the fastest growing economy in the world. In 1978, China's GDP was only 367.9 billion yuan, and then it continued to leap forward, rising to 1 trillion yuan in 1986, 2 trillion yuan in 1991, breaking through the 10 trillion yuan mark in 2000, exceeding 20 trillion yuan in 2006, standing on a new historical level of 80 trillion yuan for the first time in 2017, and reaching 114 trillion yuan in 2021.
In 2001, China's GDP was 134 trillion US dollars, ranking sixth in the world. In 2005, China's GDP surpassed that of France;In 2006, China's GDP surpassed that of the United Kingdom;In 2007, China's GDP surpassed that of Germany.
In 2010, China's GDP reached 65 trillion US dollars, surpassing Japan to become the second in the world, second only to the United States, which is at the top of the list. After another 10 years, China's GDP increased from 6 in 2010$5 trillion increased to $17 in 2021At 73 trillion US dollars, it is firmly in the second place in the world economy, and although it ranks behind the United States, its strength is very different.
The real economy is the foundation of a country's economy and the fundamental source of wealth creation, and the manufacturing industry is the main body of the real economy. Over the years, China has been determined to develop and strengthen the real economy.
From 2012 to 2020, China's industrial added value increased by 209 trillion yuan increased to 313 trillion yuan, of which the added value of the manufacturing industry increased by 1698 trillion yuan, an increase to 266 trillion yuan.
In 2020, China accounted for 20% of global manufacturing exports, five times that of Japan. China's manufacturing industry has not only achieved a record increase in scale, but also achieved a historic leap in variety.
With 41 categories, 207 medium categories and 666 sub-categories, China's industry is the country with the most complete industrial system in the world, and among the 500 kinds of industrial varieties, the output of more than 40% of the products ranks first in the world.
China has created more wealth in the past 40 years than it has in the past 400 years. In 1980, China's per capita GDP was only $430, and today this figure is $12,000, which has no precedent in human history.
The British magazine The Economist once published a striking cover that featured a panda climbing to the top of the Empire State Building, a reference to the movie "King Kong" as a symbol of China's rise.
Political science researcher ** Shuo wrote in "Did China Win?"."It is no accident that China has not fought a major war with the outside world in 40 years, and has not fired a single bullet in the surrounding area in 30 years," the book states.
In his view, this is an important proof that Chinese society has a strong endogenous drive. This is the survival wisdom of the Chinese, and it is also the success gene of the Chinese. British historian Neil Ferguson wrote: "As I walked down the dusty streets of China, I suddenly realized that 500 years of Western domination of the world were coming to an end.