Is China a rich or poor country?

Source: BBC

Recent economic data prompted some analysts to suggest it might already have reached the bottom of the current economic cycle. Many are expecting a recovery in the second half of the year.

If China's economy starts to recover earlier than those in other countries, it could challenge the assumptions we make about the world economic order.

Chinese companies, which are more cash rich than big corporations in some other countries, and with financial support from the government, have been scouring the globe for resources for some time now.

The global economic turmoil has offered them new opportunities to pick up under-valued assets elsewhere.

And yet this is a country that still receives hundreds of millions of dollars in aid from Western countries.

How should it be treated by the rest of the world then, as a "rich" country or a "poor" country, as one that needs to be helped or one whose economic strength we should fear?

.....more

I consider it a rich country that should no longer receive aid. I understand that it can be considered a poor country because the standard of living of most citizens there is still very bad. But that should be the government's responsibility not the West. If China can have massive Olympics games where they spend over $40 billion or a huge EXPO next year in Shanghai or a developed military or a state-of-the-art space program, then its their own policies that make their citizens poor.

What do you think?