According to Business Week, China might soon revise GDP upwards by a whopping 20%. Says the article:

That would make China the world's fourth-largest economy, suddenly overtaking Italy, France, and Britain. And it would peg the mainland's output at 18% that of the U.S. and 30% as large as Japan's, "bringing us several years closer to the day (still a couple of decades out) when China's GDP overtakes that of Japan and the U.S.," says Stephen Green, an economist at Standard Chartered in Shanghai.

What makes this increase particularly meaningful is that the service sector is playing a larger role than previously assumed in driving the economy. This means that China isn't just growing because the rest of the world is throwing money its way. Chinese consumes are actually consuming.

That's promising news for companies who want to begin selling to the Chinese instead of simply buying from them.

As a sidenote, according to my calculations, there will be more native Chinese speakers online by 2010 than native English speakers. a