CHINA ON THE GROW
Major events during the past decade in China:
2001 — China joins the World Trade Organization.
2002 — Entrepreneurs allowed to join the Communist Party.
2003 — China’s first manned spacecraft orbits Earth. Hu Jintao replaces Jiang Zemin as president.
2005 — China becomes the world’s fourth-largest economy. The government stops pegging the currency to the U.S. dollar.
2006 — Three Gorges Dam and railway to Tibet are completed. China’s foreign exchange reserves reach $1 trillion, becoming world’s largest.
2007 — China surpasses Germany as world’s third-largest economy. The country tops the world with 210 million Internet users.
2008 — China hosts the Olympics for the first time, wins the gold-medal race with 51 at Beijing Games. Earthquake in Sichuan leaves nearly 90,000 dead or missing. China stages its first spacewalk. The country becomes the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases.
The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.