Big picture of a rich China ignores the smaller realities

Size matters.

That is why the China factor counts so heavily in so many aspects of the present-day global economic picture. And why the size factor should never be ignored when appreciating the true picture of China.

The Global Wealth Report 2015, issued by the Credit Suisse Research Institute, is making headlines here, for such statements as China has taken Japan's place and become "the second richest" in terms of household wealth worldwide, and its claim that China's middle class is now larger than that in the United States.