Since the establishment of modern finance, there's never been a country that's so rich  (it's the second biggest economy in the world), and so poor (GDP per capita is below Albania).


We've always tolerated protectionism and currency controls for poor countries, which is what China is. And we've never tolerated it for rich, big countries.

Thus the Paradox.

From Wikipedia, here's the 2009 rankings of GDP per capita. Note how many come before China It's obviously changed a bit in the last year, but the basic idea is unchanged.
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1      Luxembourg     78,409
2      Qatar     78,260
3      Norway     51,985
4      Singapore     50,180
5      Brunei     47,930
6      United States     45,934
—      Hong Kong     42,653
7      Switzerland     40,484
8      Netherlands     39,877
9      Ireland     38,685
10      Australia     38,663
11      Austria     38,567
12      Canada     37,947
13      Iceland     37,853
14      Kuwait     37,849
15      United Arab Emirates     36,843
16      Sweden     35,951
17      Denmark     35,828
18      Belgium     35,534
19      United Kingdom     34,388
20      Germany     34,388
21      Finland     33,445
22      France     33,434
23      Japan     32,554
24      Republic of China (Taiwan)     31,776
25      Greece     29,839
26      Spain     29,625
27      Italy     29,068
28      Israel     28,581
29      Cyprus     28,504
30      Korea, South     27,938
31      Slovenia     27,470
32      Bahrain     27,214
33      New Zealand     26,670
34      Bahamas, The     25,807
35      Oman     25,635
36      Czech Republic     24,271
37      Seychelles     23,744
38      Malta     23,667
39      Saudi Arabia     23,272
40      Portugal     22,671
41      Barbados     22,272
42      Slovakia     21,245
43      Trinidad and Tobago[4]     19,759
44      Equatorial Guinea[5]     18,573
45      Hungary     18,506
46      Poland     18,050
47      Croatia     17,707
48      Estonia     17,695
49      Antigua and Barbuda     17,308
50      Lithuania     16,529
51      Russia     14,913
52      Argentina     14,525
53      Botswana     14,321
54      Chile     14,316
55      Gabon     14,297
56      Latvia     14,291
57      Lebanon     14,268
58      Malaysia     13,800
59      Mexico     13,609
60      Libya     13,599
61      Saint Kitts and Nevis     13,316
62      Uruguay     13,144
63      Belarus     12,750
64      Mauritius     12,737
65      Turkey     12,466
66      Venezuela     12,184
67      Bulgaria     11,883
68      Romania     11,869
69      Panama     11,776
70      Kazakhstan     11,679
71      Iran     10,939
72      Grenada     10,697
73      Serbia     10,577
74      Costa Rica     10,564
75      Montenegro     10,528
76      Brazil     10,499
—      World[6]     10,398
77      South Africa     10,229
78      Dominica     10,218
79      Saint Lucia     10,163
80      Saint Vincent and the Grenadines     10,127
81      Azerbaijan     9,540
82      Macedonia, Republic of     9,183
83      Tunisia     9,154
84      Colombia     9,046
85      Jamaica     8,804
86      Suriname     8,630
87      Peru     8,626
88      Dominican Republic     8,269
89      Thailand     8,051
90      Belize     7,841
91      Ecuador     7,765
92      Bosnia and Herzegovina     7,634
93      El Salvador     7,355
94      Albania     7,169
95      Tonga     7,061
96      Algeria     6,885
97      China, People's Republic of     6,778