This file photo taken on May 23, 2018 shows Chinese workers walking in a Chinese-backed power plant under construction in Islamkot in the desert in the Tharparkar district of Pakistan's southern Sindh province. — AFP
IN the recorded history of humanity’s economic affairs, there has never been as remarkable a story as that of China in the late 20th and early 21st century.
By any count, it’s miraculous. The numbers are staggering. No empire or country has managed to pull more than 70 million people out of poverty; none has achieved the sustained high growth rates that China has (10.2% on average since 1980); none has managed to achieve the expansion of its economic pie by a multiple of 42 since 1979 (from US$305bil to US$12.7 trillion) while witnessing an expansion of household consumption by a factor of 90 (from US$49bil in 1980 to US$4.5trillion) and using more cement in three years (2011 to 2013) than the US did in the entire 20th century etc.
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