Why Every American Should Care About China

The world is now addicted to what China produces, and in 2007, China's income from exports was $1.2 trillion.

ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff visits a Nantong, China soy processing plant where shiploads of soybeans arrive from Brazil.

(Gabrielle Tenenbaum/ABC News)
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"China today is the workshop of the world," said Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International magazine.

China's economic revolution is doing what Chairman Mao Zedong's communist revolution never could: It is lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. China now creates a million new jobs a month, many in factories producing products for export.

And Americans can't get enough. Last year, $320 billion worth of Chinese products -- clothing, computer parts, video equipment, sporting goods, furniture and shoes -- were sold in the United States.

Though some Americans fear that China's rise will mean economic downfall in the United States, China is playing a major role in keeping the U.S. economy afloat. During the last 12 months, China has bought more government securities than almost any other country, and is now financing close to $1 trillion of U.S. debt, with billions of dollars also tied up in American businesses.

"We're interdependent," Thornton said. "We're dependent on their money to finance our national debt, but they're dependent on a thriving U.S. economy to provide the demand for the goods that are being manufactured."

For Zakaria, China's strength signals a positive future for the United States.

"You can't stop China's rise," he said. "All you can do is make sure that the U.S. is fully positioned to take advantage of that rise. Those are our options -- we can either ride this wave or we can drown in it."