World War II In the middle and late stages, the United States has become the most powerful country in the world, leading the world in both economic, military, industrial and other fields. The only one who can compete with the United States after World War II was the Soviet Union, and the economic scale of the Soviet Union was only 60% or nearly 70% of that of the United States (recognized by most institutions). The most powerful thing about the Soviet Union was military strength, and in terms of military strength, the Soviet Union and the United States could only reach 46%. After the end of Cold War , with the collapse of , the United States became the only superpower in the world, ranking first in the world in economic, military, industrial, and technological strength.
Measure a country's economic development level and economic strength generally look at the GDP data of this country. The United States has always been the country with the highest GDP since the 20th century. So far, only Japan and China have exceeded 70% of the United States' economic scale. China's GDP has only reached 70% of the United States in 2020.
Let’s talk about Japan first. After World War II, Japan was devastated and was in destruction. After the war, Japan also hit a new high, which also provided support for Japan’s rapid development in the next 20 years. In 1950, the Korean War broke out, which brought a large number of orders and investment, benefiting all walks of life. The rapid recovery and development of industry also drove the economic development of various industries in Japan. Since 1960, Japan's economy has begun to accelerate and its economy has flourished unprecedentedly. Several landmark events: the successful hosting of the Tokyo Olympics in 1964, the completion and use of the highest technology "Shinkansen", the Osaka World Expo in 1970, showed the world Japan's industrial scientific and technological achievements. In 1967, Japan's economy surpassed France to become the world's second largest economy after the United States. At that time, Japan's GDP was US$123.8 billion, while the United States was US$861.7 billion, and the gap was still very large. At that time, the proportion of the United States' GDP in the world was 37.5%, the proportion of EU was 23.8%, while Japan only had 5.4%.
By 1995, Japan's GDP was closest to the United States. Japan's GDP this year was US$5.55 trillion, the United States' GDP was US$764 million, Japan's GDP was equivalent to 71% of the United States, accounting for 17.8% of the world, and the United States fell to 24.6%. Since then, Japan's economy has been in a slump, stagnant and even regressed. By 2021, Japan's GDP is only 4.94 trillion US dollars, which is not as high as the GDP more than 20 years ago. Although the US economy is not developing rapidly, it is also moving slowly. The US GDP in 2021 is 23 trillion US dollars, three times that of 1995.
Let’s look at China again. In fact, China’s GDP accounted for a large proportion of the world at the beginning. In 1960, it accounted for 4.3% of the world and its GDP was about 60 billion US dollars. This figure may seem very small now, but at that time, the United States’ GDP was US$543.3 billion, which was almost one-nineth of the United States. The world only had an economic total of US$1.39 trillion. In 1960, China was the largest economy in Asia and the fourth largest economy in the world, second only to the United States, Britain and France. This is a big deal. By 1980, after 20 years of development, China's GDP 2 increased from US$59.7 billion to US$1,911, almost three times more. It seems that the economy has grown, but its proportion in the world has dropped to 1.68%. The United States also dropped from 39% to 25%. The United States' GDP this year was US$2.86 trillion, 15 times that of China. The gap between China and the United States has widened during this period, and the growth of the Chinese and US economy is also slower than the growth rate of the world economy, and China is even slower than the United States.
1960 The top ten economies in the world
1980 to 1993 During this period, China's GDP increased from US$191.1 billion to US$444.7 billion, a growth of only 2.3 times in 2013, and its proportion in the world is still very low, about 1.72%; during the same period, the US economy grew from US$2.86 trillion to US$6.86 trillion, about 2.4 times. China and the United States accounted for only a very small proportion in the world, but it caught up with the world's growth rate, and China also caught up with the speed of the United States. After 1993, China's total economic output began to grow rapidly. From 1993 to 2013, GDP increased from US$444.7 billion to US$9.57 trillion, an increase of 21.5 times in 20 years. The average annual GDP growth rate exceeded 10%, accounting for the world from 1.72% to 12.3%. During the same period, the US GDP increased by 6.86 trillion US dollars to 16.84 trillion US dollars, an increase of 2.45 times, and its proportion in the world fell from 26.5% to 21.7%.
During this period, China's economic development speed was far higher than that of the United States and the world. China's GDP also reached 56% of the United States, while in 1980 it was still 6.6%. During this period, China joined , WTO in 2001 (I personally think it plays a very important role in China's economic development), held the Beijing Olympics in 2008, and held the Shanghai World Expo in 2010. In the same year, GDP surpassed Japan to become the world's second largest economy.
After 2013, China's economic growth began to slow down, and GDP growth has also entered medium- and low-speed growth from high-speed growth. However, compared with the United States, even the global economic growth is still relatively fast. It is still the main global economic growth engine, the world's factory and the largest manufacturing country. After 40 years of rapid development, China's GDP in 2021 was US$17.73 trillion, accounting for 18.45% of the world's share; the United States' GDP was US$23 trillion, accounting for 23.9% of the world's share. China's GDP also reached 77% of the United States, higher than Japan's original 71% and China has become the country with the closest economic scale to the United States after World War II.
In recent years, due to the impact of the epidemic, the world economy has shown a recession, and its growth has been weak; coupled with the impact of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the Sino-US trade war, the energy crisis, and the inflation , the economic situation of all countries is not very good. The US dollar is strong this year and the currencies of various countries are depreciating. China's economy may be lower than that of the United States this year, and the Chinese and US economies will further expand. However, China's industrial chain is complete, its market is huge, and its infrastructure is perfect. We have reason to believe that China will surpass the United States to become the world's largest economy.
(Note: simply analyze from GDP data, no other factors are considered)
