Where do you suppose China ranks on the chart above? Based on both the economic and geopolitical assessment of China in the western world, you might imagine either that China's line would be soaring above the other three examples here, or that it would be rapidly rising, overtaking Thailand and Malaysia.
Click below to see the same chart, with China included.
Although China's economy has been growing more rapidly than that of (post-Communist) Laos in the last 10 years, the Chinese still have a long way to go before they can even overtake Thailand (in terms of G.D.P. per capita at purchasing power parity --a uniquely important statistic, that we should probably pay more attention to than raw GDP growth).
You can click here to see a similar chart that compares China to Japan --with Japan being wealthier by several orders of magnitude. And while China is growing, it isn't catching up.
