If you wanted any more information about the rise of China as the world’s global economic power of the next century, today’s Wall Street Journal reports: “China’s trade volume was $1.1 trillion in 2004, state media reported, up from $850 billion the previous year.
The record annual trading volume, the sum of China’s exports and imports, accounted for 12% of the total growth in world trade in 2004…”

And a bit more: “In 2003, China reported a $25.5 billion trade surplus even as it continued to gradually open its markets to the outside world and reduce tariffs on imports as it agreed to do following its entry into the World Trade Organization in late 2001.” Remember, the U.S. has a massive trade deficit, by comparison.