Led by surging exports, China’s economy grew by 9.9 percent last year, the government announced Wednesday, underscoring the swiftness by which this once insular communist country has remade itself into a global trading power.
The rapid expansion appears to move China’s economy ahead of those of Great Britain, France and Italy to become the world’s fourth-largest, although many countries have yet to report their final 2005 economic data. Over the past decade, China’s output has more than doubled in size as the country’s transition toward capitalism has progressed, turning farmers into factory workers and linking the fortunes of its people to the appetites of shoppers in the United States, Europe and Japan.
Yet the news also increased concern that China could be growing too fast, despite measures aimed at cooling the hottest parts of the economy.
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