2010. However, according to Gallup polls many Americans rate China's economy as first. Considering GDP per capita, this is far from accurate. The United States remains the largest economy in the world. However, the trend of China Rising is clear. The Asian financial crisis affected China at the margin, mainly through decreased foreign direct investment and a sharp drop in the growth of its exports. China's nonconvertible capital account and its foreign exchange controls were decisive in limiting the impacts of the crisis. However, China faced slowing growth and rising unemployment based on internal problems, including a financial system burdened by huge amounts of bad loans, and massive layoffs stemming from aggressive efforts to reform its state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Despite China's impressive economic development during the past two decades, reforming the state sector and modernizing the banking system remained major hurdles. Over half of China's state-owned enterprises were inefficient and reporting losses. However, SOEs which operated at a loss sometimes did so for complex reasons, including as a result of policies which deliberately imposed higher income tax and VAT on SOEs than on foreign joint and privates companies. During the 15th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party that met in September 1997, General secretary, President Jiang Zemin announced plans to sell, merge, or close the vast majority of SOEs in his call for increased "non-public ownership" (feigongyou or privatization in euphemistic terms). The 9th National People's Congress endorsed the plans at its March 1998 session. In 2000, China claimed success in its three-year effort to make the majority of large state owned enterprises (SOEs) profitable. By that year, the state sector accounted for 47% of industrial assets, approximately 50% of government output, and accounted for one-third of urban employment. From 2000 After its entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, China began pursuing export-led growth and became a key link in global supply chains. Its industrious and cheap labor also proved attractive to foreign investments. China accumulated large trade surpluses and foreign currency reserves, which greatly increased government resources. By 2002, the profits of industrial state-owned enterprises had grown by 163.6%. Following the CCP's Third Plenum, held in October 2003, Chinese legislators unveiled several proposed amendments to the state constitution. One of the most significant was a proposal to provide protection for private property rights. Legislators also indicated there would be a new emphasis on certain aspects