China fact of the day

…at $1.2 trillion, Italian GDP is roughly the size of China’s, and Italy’s total foreign-trade value of $750 billion is only slightly smaller than that of the mainland.

The bottom line: Yes China is an important country, but we should keep matters in perspective. [Question — hey, then why don’t you have an "Italy fact of the day" installment? — Answer — because China has started selling soy underwear.]

The quotation is from today’s Wall Street Journal, Op-Ed page, "Yuan-derful," and see the Marketplace section on the soy underwear.