It lifted them from the Third World to the First. I assure you that today Japan is much, much richer country than it was in 1950s. And Japan is a major lender to America.
Chinese will be very happy to have Japanese level of development (even with the Japanese problems). At the Japanese PPP, Ceinese economy would be FOUR times larger than USA and make HALF of the world economy. Not a bad deal for having Japanese style problems!
here is the thing about China - just one whiff of geopolitical instability in the country, and the current "giant sucking sound" of US investment headed over there - will turn around in a heartbeat.
I wasn't talking about Japan from the 1950s. Yes, China may do well for awhile selling the cheap trinkets like the Japanese did in that era. But the trade mega-surplus of the 1980s about did them in. The question is will China be ruined by the huge surpluses before they become fully developed while selling us trinkets in an era of expensive oil? Unless China has an energy source we don't know about, they are not going to be Japan or 4X the US or anything else. They will strangle the world oil economy and kill their export markets first. Our trade deficit so far does nothing but make dollars a world circulating currency backed by uranium and plutonium.