China is still far behind the US on a per-capita basis, but China has a lot of people, so the overall size of the economy is similar (larger in PPP terms, small

China is still far behind the US on a per-capita basis, but China has a lot of people, so the overall size of the economy is similar (larger in PPP terms, smaller in nominal terms). I don't think anyone here believes China is ahead in terms of average standard of living. This graphic is just about the overall size of the economy.