It's official now. China has a larger nominal GDP than Japan and is therefore the world's third biggest economy after the EU's single market and the USA.

China already passed Japan in terms of total GDP at PPP (purchasing power parity) many years ago (around 2004 if I recall correctly).

Nominally, at current exchange rate, China was smaller than the British economy 5 years ago. The Chinese economy was then worth $2.25 trillion. It is now valued at four times that figure, over $9.7 trillion !

In comparison, the GDP at most Western countries almost hasn't changed over the last 5 years, due to the financial crisis.