BEIJING, December 29, SinoCast -- China is likely to surpass Japan to become the second largest economy in the world, predicted by Li Daokui, director of the Center for China in the World Economy of Tsinghua University.
The director added that although the Japanese yen appreciated, but the Chinese economy grew rapidly, so there would be no doubt that China was to become the second largest economy in the world.
China's gross domestic product (GDP) for 2008 was lifted to be close to that of Japan, compared with the preliminary figure of USD 3.86 trillion, and the figure in 2009 was likely to be raised, showed data issued by the National Bureau of Statistics.
After the second economic census, the 2008 GDP for China added CNY 1.34 trillion to hit CNY 31.4 trillion, with a growth up 0.6 percentage points to 9.6%, which was mainly attributed to that added value in the tertiary industry grew to CNY 13.134 trillion, growing CNY 1.0853 trillion over earlier statistics.
CITIC Securities Chief Economist Zhu Jianfang told journalists that the GDP growth for 2009 used to be predicted to be 8.6%, which was expected to grow to about 9% after the economic census.
Harvard University
The Chinese economy is likely to overtop the Japanese economy and become the second largest in the world. 

Li Daokui, Director of the Center for China in the World Economy (CCWE) at the Tsinghua University, states that there is no doubt about what the numbers or the statistics show. China's GDP growth was 9.6% in 2008. Despite predictions about China's GDP being at around 8.6% to 9%, it rose to 9.6%, as stated by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected previously that China will overtake Japan soon since the latter's GDP dropped this year.

“The big underlying factor propelling China’s growth is the continued migration of people from the agricultural sector to the more modern economy—industry and services,” said economist David Cohen. 

In 2007 China became the third largest economy in the world when it overtook Germany. In 2009, the economic stimulus program assisted China in attaining 8% growth.