China: The Two Billion Armpits

More on the phenomona of the Chinese Shopping Mall. The news that China is now more popular around the world than the United States, according to a Pew Research Center survey, is just the latest Chinese challenge to the American ego. The Chinese are also buying U.S. businesses with hallowed American brand names, such as IBM (its PC unit), and they're bidding for Maytag and Unocal. They're making a lot of what Americans wear, use and buy. They hold a substantial interest in the U.S. future by financing much of the national debt.And they've even surpassed us in the most characteristic icon of American life: the shopping mall.
The Mall of America in Minnesota has been the biggest in the U.S. for more than a decade, and the North American title goes to the mall in West Edmonton, Canada. But this year the largest mall in the world is the Golden Resources Mall in Beijing, and it will soon be eclipsed by the South China Mall. There are now four malls in China that are bigger than the Mall of America. South China Mall will be three times its size.By the end of the decade, China is expected to have at least seven of the world's 10 largest shopping malls; it has 400 malls now. In the U.S., mall construction is steadily declining — from 35 major projects at the turn of the 21st century to just eight projected for 2004-06.