I was very young in the 1970s. China's performance has exceeded all of my expectations.
Deng Xiaoping had only hoped China would achieve a $2,000 per-capita GDP by 2020. This year, China will have a nominal $5,899 per-capita GDP. China is ten years ahead of Deng Xiaoping's most optimistic projection.
1. I was fortunate to see Taiwan industrialize before my eyes (during the 1980s and 1990s) when I returned to periodically visit.
2. I was lucky to see the United States at the zenith of its power in the 1970s and 1980s. It was the "land of milk and honey" and not the highly indebted country that we see today.
3. China has industrialized non-stop for 30 years. It has traversed the same road as Taiwan, but on an unimaginable scale. (I was in China during the 1990s on business and saw miles of cranes firsthand.)
I feel like one of the luckiest people in the world, because I saw history unfolding in all three regions with my own eyes.
Short of a global thermonuclear war or extinction-level asteroid strike, nothing can prevent China from becoming the world's largest economy (circa 2020) and
the most powerful military (circa 2030 or 2040).
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References:
http://books.google.com/books?id=259WHxBah2wC&pg=PA2&lpg=PA2&dq=deng+xiaoping+china+%22$2,000+gdp+in+2020%22&source=bl&ots=S2PJ7SGuvk&sig=9lmAp3EEIngRfwfIU5JPiwMLiiU&hl=en&sa=X&ei=XAAtUKWAE4Tt0gGv5IHADg&ved=0CEgQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=deng%20xiaoping%20china%20%22%242%2C000%20gdp%20in%202020%22&f=false
List of countries by past and future GDP (nominal) per capita - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia