China and its wealth

* No 2 in economy does not mean anything to its citizens and only has meaning to its trading partners. GNP per capita is what every country should fight for. Norway is #1 or close to and US is not too far away from the top.

Unless we're still in high school, being #1 has no meaning. If the world leaders do not care to be #1, we would have a better world.

* China should compare itself to China 5, 10, 20, or 30 years ago. Comparing itself to a developed country like USA has no meaning. China never declares they want to be #1. It is the idea from the media and politicians who have their own agenda.

* GNP even adjusted for purchase power is not meaningful in many cases but it is the only benchmark. Urban China and farm villages are very different and the GNP has no meaning at all. You can live a very decent and healthier life in villages. We should add a happy meter and health meter.

Hong Kong is one of the cities in top GNP per capita. However life is not that great proportionally compared to housing expenses and pollutions. Wealth brings up temptations / lusts and bad human natures like corruption to life. I prefer the good, old days when life was simpler and happier.

* No one steals US jobs as long as we've free trade. $20 wage just does not compete with $2 wage. It is the election theme to blame all our problems on China as our politicians cannot fix our problems. There are many in line to provide same goods produced by China and US is not one of them.

* China will have discovered more new drugs in the future from their research and ease to market a new drug than US and the west.

That is not the point. The point is when you need a drug to cure your life threatening disease, do you care where it comes from? So being #1 is only in the mind of politicians, not in the mind of average citizen.

* China will not gain respect for being wealthy, but on how to deal with the world problems, potential wars, how their citizens behave... At the same time US and the west should not look at China as enemies. When they do, China will be an enemy eventually.