From the New York Times, via the International Herald Tribune:
In fact, China is effectively two economies. It is a manufacturing Goliath, a major engine for worldwide economic growth that has doubled its foreign trade in just three years. But roughly 500 million of the 1.3 billion Chinese live on less than $2 a day and the overall population is aging rapidly, in a country where the social safety net is almost nonexistent.
Chinese leaders have made 2020 the target year for achieving their goal of a “well-off society,” and they realize that economic ties with America are critical to getting there.
