After surpassing US in automobile industry and beating Germany in 2007 to become the world's second largest economy, China has gone on to become the biggest exporter in the world, beating Germany by the boost in exports in December 2008. The exports jumped 17.7%, for the first time in 14 months, and continue to underline the power China is achieving in the world economy.
Even though, China taking over US as world's largest economy in immediate futureremains a media hype (the assumption being that it continues to grow at its present rate for the next 25 years, which is, frankly, a bit too early to tell), the growing influence China is achieving is establishing it as a power to be dealt with. American and other governments continue to stress that such surpluses come from the price competitiveness which is endowed to the Chinese exporters by the government subsidies and from the widespread dumping which the exporters carry out in western markets. To counter the threat, the western governments have passed legislations-US has passed specific specific anti-dumping laws while the EU has imposed curbs on Chinese shoes. What would be interesting to watch in the future will be whether, with these strict regulations, the chinese government would succeed in becoming the world's largest economy even in the distant future.