It is unusual to sum up the results of the...

Last Sunday the Chinese Customs Service published statistics showing that China has become the world"s leading exporter: its exports amounted to $1.2 trillion. It has already outstripped Germany, but not the United States or Japan. Germans count more slowly but their exports are expected to be a mere $1.17 trillion.

It is a strange time for China to take the lead, now during a recession rather than an upsurge. China"s exports in 2009 decreased by 16% but German exports dropped much more.

It may be that this recession will greatly help China to outstrip Japan, which has already lost 9% of its GDP since 2007. The crisis, which started in 2008, is not the only cause of this. For the last 30 years the Japanese economy has been experiencing problems, primarily due to sluggish domestic demand. The Japanese explain it by pointing to a change in their attitude to life, which "has become too boring."

When that new generation of Japanese people, born right after World War

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