Is China an economic threat or boon to European trade?

Essay from the year 2009 in the subject Economics - International Economic Relations, grade: 1,6, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, language: English, abstract: The opening of China's economy to compete with other countries and the allowance for foreign businesses to invest in the country led to rapid economic growth because of growing exports and investment from other countries. With China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, its exports and levels of investment increased considerably and in April 2008 the WTO announced that China had become the world's second-biggest exporter of goods, second only to Germany. The US had turned out to be number three. This shows the dramatic growth of China's economy.