Is China Really the Second Largest Economy?

For those of you, who cannot believe that our biggest enemy (it is not Pakistan: Pakistan is just a tool) China has become the second biggest economy, there is some news. Prof Gordon Chang has been writing on this topic for a while. Since there is no transparency in China, any news coming from there has to be taken with large amounts of salt. As per Prof. Chang, China has put in more than $1 trillion in the Chinese economy directly and indirectly (through state owned banks). In an older article he had revealed that Chinese state owned banks have more and $500 billion in bad loans-money that they have no hopes of recovering (soft loans to state run outfits). China apparently has no property taxes which has spurred purchase of properties as investments leading to meteoric rise in prices thereby creating a huge bubble. A dangerous situation indeed for the global economy.

China's Coming Property Bust
"There were, a few months ago, 64.5 million urban flats that showed no electricity usage for six consecutive months. That’s one in four city apartments, enough housing for some 200 million people. The value of vacant apartments held by speculators is about 15% of gross domestic product. Beijing’s bank stress tests assume a 60% fall in property prices. In fact, official statistics show that property price increases slowed in July. "
The rest of the article can be read at:
http://www.forbes.com/2010/08/12/china-property-electricity-asia-opinions-columnists-gordon-g-chang_print.html
A similar article can be read at:
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/08/16/gordon-chang-china-economy-japan-united-states-gross-domestic-product/