A report issued by Japanese Trade Minister Toshihiro Nikai which forecasted that China's GDP may overpass Japan, has triggered hot discussion among Internet users in Japan.

In 2008 China's GDP was $4.40 trillion, and Japan's was $4.84 trillion.

Some said that the power China has shown is just "puffed up", and it's too early to say China could overtake Japan which stands ahead of China as the world's second-largest economy.

"As the world's factory, China has absorbed investments from the world to develop its economy. But once those investments pull out of China, the country will crash," one Japanese web user said. "Besides, with its economic development, it will become less attractive to outside world. Frankly speaking, to maintain stable economic growth is even difficult for China."

Some Japanese criticized China's per capital GDP which is listed as No.107 in the world neighboring Guatemala and the Marshall Islands, by saying that the figure should be the standard to measure a country's capability and to this aspect, China is just a negligible nation.

As a rising developing country, China has become an economic miracle in the past 30 years, and it has overtaken Germany to become the world's third-largest economy.

Meanwhile Japan slid into the worst recession since World War II and its GDP contracted by an annualized 12.7 percent in the last quarter of 2008, the fastest pace in about 35 years as the global financial crisis took a heavy toll on the world's second-largest economy.

Many developed economies have mixed feelings towards China. Under pressure from the Chinese economy soaring, the "Threat from China" theory began to arise but amid the global financial crisis, some countries pin their hopes on the fastest growing country with the largest foreign reserve to pull them out of the economy downturn.

Source:Global Times