From: x0y3510@tamuts.tamu.edu (Xuejun Yang)
Subject: Re: Chinese reform (1980 - 1991)
Organization: ~/lib/organization
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 20:06:10 GMT

In article <1992Aug28.174102.7587@objy.com> cw@orion.uucp (C.W. Chung) writes:
>    In article <27AUG199218082022@phobos.ucc.umass.edu> s9874194@phobos.ucc.umass.edu (s9874194) writes:
>    >In article <714923644.23762@minster.york.ac.uk>, yong@minster.york.ac.uk writes...
>    >>Chinese reform (1980 - 1991)
>    >> 
>    >>	China GNP		GNP per capita
>    >>1980 	US$81.27 billions	US$82.90
>    >>1991	$356 billions		$307.45
>    >Can anybody give me a figure about the GNP's of US? Let's assume the
>    >GNP per capita is US$6,000. If we expect that Chinese getting this rich,
>    >the national GNP would be US$356 billions * 20 * 6 = US$42,720 Billions,
>    >not to count the consumption and pollution as well as the natural 
>    >resources needed. Oh my God. For that reason, I only want to be half
>    >as rich as American.
>    >c.q. from Massachusetts
>
>My 1991 CD-ROM has GNP figures and per capita income for 1988, and estimate 
>population figure for 1990.  So the GNP/capita is underestimated by perhaps
>a few percent for all countries:
>
>	(from the World Almanac and Book of Facts 1991)(my calculation)
>	GNP	per-capita income	population	GNP/capita
>USA	$4800B		$16444  	 250M		$19200
>Japan	$1800B		no data		 1230M		$14634 (from almanac)
>China	$ 350B		$  258		1100M		$  318
>S.Korea $ 171B		$ 2180		  439M		$ 3895
>Taiwan	$ 119B		no data		  20M		$ 6200 (from almanac)
>Singap. $  23.7B	$ 6200		   2.7M		$ 8777
>
>Note that these figures are subjected to currency rate fluctuation. The Taiwan
>dollars has been strong for the last few years, so GNP growth in US dollars
>will be quite spectacular.  The GNP growth measured in the local currency
>will be less.  Conversely, the Yuan of mainland has been weak for the past
>few years. So the GNP growth measured by local currency would be much greater
>than measured by US dollars.
As other netters pointed out, GNP is a very misleading indicator, especially
for a country with an unconvertible currency like Yuan, even for a place
like Taiwan and Japan where currencies are convertible, it can be
misleading. an equivalent house in Japan and Taiwan costs considerably
more than in U.S. same for Agricultural products(e,g, it costs 8 U.S.
dollars for a watermelon in Taiwan and its more expensive in Japan.
In U.S. its about 4 dollars, in China its 1 dollar). Japan is so
rich today not because it produced that much product, its mainly
due to the Yen's rise from worthless after WWII to 1 dollar = > 600
Yen in the 60's to 1 dollar = 125 Yen today. That is why They call 
the Japanse and Taiwan economies bubble economy. Its has a lot
to do with speculations. The purchasing powers of an average person
in Japan and Taiwan is much lower than in U.S. people from Taiwan
feel much richer because most products are artificially low-priced(
subsidized). One more important reason is that service sector
takes > 50 percent of GNP in U.S., Japan and Taiwan while its
around 10 % in China. This is THE area that China need to expand
and it does not take too much effort to get 50 % GNP. By then
China will be an economic superpower.
>
>-cw-
>_____________________________________________________________________________
>C.W.Chung       Objectivity Inc.      Object-Oriented DBMS  Tel: 415/688-8023
>                800 El Camino Real,   Menlo Park CA 94025   Fax: 415/325-0939
>                                      email: cw@objy.com    or  uunet!objy!cw