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| | February 16, 2005: China Replacing the United States as World's Leading Consumer (printable) |
 | | As China’s population urbanizes and as the country has moved into the construction phase of development, building hundreds of thousands of factories and high-rise apartment and office buildings, steel consumption has climbed to levels not seen in any other country. |
 | | China is now importing vast quantities of grain, soybeans, iron ore, aluminum, copper, platinum, potash, oil and natural gas, forest products for lumber and paper, and the cotton needed for its world-dominating textile industry. |
 | | China’s eclipse of the United States as a consumer nation should be seen as another milestone along the path of its evolution as a world economic leader. |
| www.earth-policy.org /Updates/Update45.htm (1347 words) |
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