Context. Normally I don’t (I don’t know enough about China!), but when the context is “how many enconomic thingies does this group of people have?” I think comparing groups with roughly equal GDP is probably less wrong than comparing groups with roughly the same number of nations (or people).
But I’m neither an economist nor politically trained, so if someone who is either wants to (politely) tell me I’m grossly oversimplifying, I’ll listen.
But I’m neither an economist nor politically trained, so if someone who is either wants to (politely) tell me I’m grossly oversimplifying, I’ll listen.