some researchers say china is now the world's largest economy, most don't. at any rate they are surpassing us in many fields, they are the world leader in genomics, they are the world leader in the production of electricity, steel & concrete. they have the largest rapid rail system in the world, we don't even have one or any prospect of getting one. they produce more cars than the united states & japan combined. we sell more cars in china than we do in the united states. one of the reasons germany's unemployment is so low is they sell so many machine tools to china. so many american corporations are doing fabulously well selling products & using chinese labor (apple, wallmart), we are in midst of the worst depression in 80 years with no way out, & china just seems to continue improving. in fact for a country that had a lower standard of living than haiti in 1980, the standard of living in china now is remarkable. real per capita income in china increased 1300% in the last 30 years. now obama & romney think that increasing pressure on the chinese will be productive, not mentioning that china's purchase of our bonds keeps our economy from deteriorating even further. it doesn't look like our basic economics is working very well, although china has many problems, their economics appears to be far superior to ours. oh, & by the way, china is no. 1 in the world in math, science & reading comprehension. we aren't in the top 20 in any of the three.