In 1980, the population of the People’s Republic of China numbered close to a billion, and most were among the poorest people on earth. China produced barely a third as much steel as the US. Thirty five years later, it makes more steel in six weeks than the US does in a year, and has engineered the greatest fall in poverty in world history. Set beside the arrival of China into the global economy, no event since the industrial revolution has had a greater impact — not the financial crisis, nor even the collapse of the Soviet Union.
1980年,中華人民共和國人口接近10億,其中大部分屬於全球最貧困人羣,鋼產量勉強達到美國的三分之一。35年後的今天,中國6周的鋼產量就比美國一年的還要多,並且實現了世界史上最大規模的減貧。工業革命以來,沒有任何事件比中國融入全球經濟更具影響力——金融危機、甚至蘇聯解體都無法與之匹敵。