Unit 04 (Lessons 10-12).docVIP

Unit 4 Economy Lesson 10 (E--C) Bilingual Reading A Global Economy President Clinton realized -- as all of us must -- that today’s economy is global. We live in an era in which information, goods and capital speed around the globe, every hour of every day. Whether we like it or not, all of our fortunes are tied together. We are truly interdependent. America supports international trade because we believe fundamentally that trade will enrich those nations who embrace its discipline. The great promise of trade is its potential to promote mutual prosperity -- and to strengthen the bonds between sovereign nations. The U.S. and China both demonstrate the potential of trade to improve the lives of our people. You know better than I the great achievements of the Chinese economy over the past two decades. In 1977, the sum total of Chinese imports and exports was less than $15 billion, putting China’s share of world trade at 0.6 percent. The most populous country in the world, China ranked a distant 30th among exporting nations. By 1993 China’s exports and imports totaled nearly $200 billion. China had become the world’s tenth largest exporter. Since 1978, when China began opening its economy to increased foreign investment and trade, aggregate output has more than doubled. The strongest growth has occurred in the coastal areas near Hong Kong and opposite Taiwan, where foreign investment and modern production methods have spurred production of both domestic and export goods. Per capita GNP has grown at an average rate of 7.6% from 1980-1992. The numbers are interesting, but how has this affected the people of China? In the last decade, telephone connections rose more than 60%. Electrical production more than doubled to 621 million kilowatt hours. In short, China has improved the economic well-being of its people. The people of the United States also have experienced the benefits of world trade. Since World War II, the U. S. has been the world’s largest economy and, in mo