Also, according to Albert Kiedel at Carnegie Endowment, China's GDP growth is almost independent of US GDP fluctuations (see the chart below).
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnjtFrhLF7-NZL7c0QB9c5ObaJV31alA4WiENi0IOfdq0XwyB52p0ZvyhE904zAUvmNTwyVjfcfPP5Tkq9QSYFAeuxtt76VyZsUkIFsmKNHlKQtgTFlQW3dE0WoiX0Z8BoGh9l/s400/chinagdpwithROW.jpg)
Now I made another interesting graph using the data from National Bureau of Statistics (NBS): the growth component of China's GDP growth--- how investment, consumption and export have contributed China's GDP growth historically.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge6o6VGWz2Nb3NU-pvh4RgMQuxcD5wIcnXZBjUM-zsIrOyRJnEJ3weER2ZGiVpam9lJgkbycdW-pwwZASQGOPs237n4uGTB4zgMCIiDiAf54-mZggyLh8Y3Sxnrd5uvte_Nj28/s400/chinagdpcomponent.jpg)
(click to enlarge; source: my own calculation and NBS)
As you can see from the above graph, domestic consumption and investment have played a much larger role than net exports. In recent years, net exports' contribution to GDP growth was only around 20% of the total.
(note: the investment includes both private investment and government investment. I have to point out part of investment is surely export-related and the graph above does not capture the potential linkage between export and domestic investment. I will dig more in the future to find out).
But in any case, I tend to think of China as a large open-economy (in the case of open trade and FDI, not in the sense of capital control), similar to the US. Although trade plays a very important role in China, but because the country is so large that even trade was hard hit the economy can still manage to grow at a relatively fast speed. And don't forget China is still a relatively poor developing country; for poorer countries, faster growth came as no surprise because the strong catch-up effect often dominates.
Now watch this interview clip of an investment strategist at BNP Paripas Asia discussing China's recent rally and how China is not export-driven as the world thinks.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-ALNAzYUPAH0eo3Hpaa7bh_6YEVT-JRYIMrGw4ccuLvzj-mBNJy_QZIWtSxHTHyL055p9OuqgOkJBng_Js7sH3hH3W089MKWVvBW_jChhyphenhyphenTWzp1upDtgUIubrIx9j-4Xr8q23/s400/BNP.jpg)
(click on the graph to watch the interview; source: FT)
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