According to the most up-to-date estimate by the late economic historian Angus Maddison, China’s per capita GDP in 2008 was $6,725 in 1990 dollars, which was 21% of per capita GDP in the United States. That is roughly the same gap that existed between the US and Japan in 1951, Singapore in 1967, Taiwan in 1975, and South Korea in 1977 – four economies that are also among the 13 successful economies studied by the Growth Commission.