Recent economic data prompted some analysts to suggest it might already have reached the bottom of the current economic cycle. Many are expecting a recovery in the second half of the year.

If China's economy starts to recover earlier than those in other countries, it could challenge the assumptions we make about the world economic order.

Chinese companies, which are more cash rich than big corporations in some other countries, and with financial support from the government, have been scouring the globe for resources for some time now.

The global economic turmoil has offered them new opportunities to pick up under-valued assets elsewhere.

And yet this is a country that still receives hundreds of millions of dollars in aid from Western countries.

How should it be treated by the rest of the world then, as a "rich" country or a "poor" country, as one that needs to be helped or one whose economic strength we should fear?

Huge contrasts

From the top of Shanghai's tallest building, the World Financial Centre, tourists - most of them Chinese - gaze down on the city below them.

Rapid development in the past few years has created a skyline to rival that of Hong Kong's, New York's or Tokyo's.

Viewed from this height, Shanghai seems to be a rich, sophisticated, modern metropolis - and to a certain extent it is.

But at the foot of the tower it's a different story. You notice the pollution and the noise, the dirt and the traffic congestion.

Close up, Chinese cities are not always so pleasant. This country is in a hurry to remake itself, and laws to control construction and development are sometimes not well enforced here.

Watching this rapid change, it's hard to judge how far this country has come.

Andy Tsieh, who describes himself as an "independent" economist, argues that China is no longer a poor country.

"In terms of trade, China is the largest trading nation in the world today," he points out.

"In terms of gross domestic product (GDP), China is likely to surpass Japan as the number two world economy either this year or next year."