Bridging the Economic Gap

The Chinese economy is growing fast.

It is estimated that China, in a few short years will become the second biggest economy in the world.

This means that it will take a step to be above Japan and will only second the United States.

Several things are boosting its economy but one of the main things is its work in infrastructure projects.

In 2008 it opened the 3 Gorges Dam, a huge undertaking that will be capable of producing a large amount of eco friendly energy with its turbine generators.

Then earlier this year, in one day, it opened four bridges to the public, two of these being the longest bridges ever built.

Three of the bridges are part of its high speed railway system, in which China must be one of the leaders in this field.

It is now considering building a high speed railway system across Asia, joining Europe to China. It has already started construction on high speed links to South East Asia.

Another reason for China’s growing economy is the need for rare earth in modern technology. China possesses 95% of the Earths rare earth metals.

It would also appear that keeping its distance from the world’s battlefields is also helping.

Whilst a lot of the world were watching the conflict in Afghanistan, China did not stand idle.

Whilst some countries were sending soldiers and diplomats to Afghanistan, China was sending businessmen and engineers.

While the fighting was going on, China secured mining contracts in Afghanistan. Not only for ores but also for the mining of one of the biggest rare earth deposits outside of China.

In these hard economic times, it is sometimes hard to see how the United States economy will stay ahead of that of China.

President Obama has said that America needs to work on its infrastructure in order to boost its economy and even mentioned high speed trains.

The problem is though, even when the Eastern span of The San Francisco Bay Bridge was rebuilt, it still used steel from China. So can America’s recovery take place without equally helping China?