Waking the Dragon

Sept. 20, 2005 — -- China's economy continues to skyrocket and, with it, American fortunes have been won and lost. "Good Morning America's" Bill Weir recently traveled to China and returned with a four-part series: "Made in China: Your Job, Your Future, Your Fortune."

In the first installment, Weir examines China's transformation from a developing country to a developing superpower and why Americans should take notice.

About 200 years ago, Napoleon returned from China and said, "That is a sleeping dragon. Let him sleep! If he wakes, he will shake the world."

China seemed asleep in the 19th and early 20th centuries, when the country was ravaged by civil unrest, famines, military defeats and foreign occupation before the end of WWII when the Communists established a socialist system with strict controls over everyday life.

In 2005, the dragon is wide awake, and restless.

Meet Gwei-Ching. At first glance, he appears to represent the traditional image of China. He is a cabbage farmer living in a tiny house without plumbing, and supports his family on $20 a week.

But in the middle of a conversation with a vising reporter, Gwei-Ching's cell phone rings. It is a sharp reminder that this once-agricultural society is rapidly transforming into a new China.

"[M]ore people in China have cell phones than there are people in America," explains Tom Friedman, a columnist for The New York Times who has written several books on the developing world.

In the United States, there are nine urban centers with more than a million people, China has 174; Chinese will soon pass English as the most commonly used language on the Internet. With a population of 1.3 billion, Chinese outnumber Americans four to one, and their economy has the potential to rush past America's as well.