China boasts the world's second-largest economy. It is the largest trading nation in the world, the largest manufacturing economy, the largest exporter, and has the world's fastest growing consumer market. The country produces and uses 60% of the world's cement, 46% of the world's coal, and its railway tracks could twice circle the earth.
But China's GDP growth rate is slowing, now on track to slip to a 25-year low in 2015 of under 7%.