On a recent episode of The Office, Michael Scott spent much of the show bemoaning the fact that China could soon become the number one economic superpower. Of course by the end of the episode everyone had concluded that the United States would continue to be number one indefinitely, but in the real world things are not so simple.

Sadly, the cold, hard facts reveal that China is on the rise and the United States is experiencing a dramatic economic decline. The world is changing and China is projected to become the largest economy in the world at some point during the next decade.

Americans have been taught from birth that "the U.S. is number one", but the transition is really happening. China is passing the United States even in quite a few high tech industries and in many areas of scientific research. The numbers that you are going to read below are absolutely staggering. It is getting really hard to deny that the Chinese are wiping the floor with us economically. In fact, they are beating us so badly that it is hard to put into words.

Of course our leaders are saying all the right things. During the State of the Union address last January, Barack Obama defiantly declared the following to the rest of the world:

"I do not accept second place for the United States of America."

Well, Barack Obama may not be willing to "accept" it, but that doesn't mean that it is not happening. China is becoming an absolute powerhouse. Of course that would never have happened if we had not opened up trade with them.

We have essentially merged our economy with China's over the past couple of decades. Now, if you walk into just about any store and start examining the products you will notice that far more of them are made in China than are made in the United States.

But most Americans still do not take China seriously. Most Americans still view China as being vastly inferior to the United States. Most Americans do not consider China to be an economic or a military threat at all.

Unfortunately, Americans have become so dumbed-down that only about 70 percent of them can even find China on a map.

The truth is that the world is radically changing. The truth is that China has become a world class rival of the United States. The truth is that the United States had better wake up fast if it wants to stay "number one".

The following are 25 facts that prove that China is rapidly becoming the number one economic superpower on the globe....