China's New Deal By Peter Navarro

Years from now, China's embrace of a massive fiscal stimulus, announced this week, will be seen as a far more important marker of the country's emergence as an economic superpower than even the successful hosting of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.

This two-year, US$600 billion fiscal stimulus - equal to a stunning one-sixth of China's entire gross domestic product - focuses primarily on the construction of economically critical infrastructure, such as rail and energy networks and politically critical infrastructure, like low-income housing and healthcare. The historic importance of China's "New Deal" is evident in at least five factors.