China Is Not Japan

Most reasonable economists are predicting that these issues are going to cause the end of strong sustained growth in China. They point to the experiences of Japan, which was another country that grew rapidly thanks to mass manufacturing and strong exports. The parallels between Japan and China are truly remarkable - but China is not Japan. In 1995, Japan had a GDP per capita of $45,000; today, almost 30 years later, China has a GDP per person of $10,500.