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Print A second way to appreciate the importance of looking at Europe and China as comparable units really comes from thinking about them from a present-day vantage point. It used to be, until about twenty years ago, that we thought of national states as the natural end-development of what a modern world looked like politically. In the last twenty years, with the gradual formation of the European Union, we are increasingly thinking of Europe creating a political structure that transcends or supersedes at its apex national states. China (a country) and Europe (a region) Diversity of Peoples in China and Europe The European Union is growing. It is growing both in the sense of the introduction of new member states and in terms of the types of decisions that are being taken by the European Union government. From a Chinese vantage point, in other words, from the vantage point of a comparably sized geographical space that has experienced political unification over many, many centuries, Europeans today are achieving politically in weaker and more modest form what Chinese have had for centuries, namely, the existence of a central level of government that makes decisions about economics and social policy over a vast area. Comparing Europe with China Advanced Commercial Economies look Similar