Query - ECO 101

"Shahid Javed Burki, former vice president of the World Bank's China Department and a former Pakistani finance minister, forecasts that China will probably have enough purchasing power to surpass the U.S. as the world's largest economy this year." (The Globe and Mail, Sept. '05) Explain to me the definition of "purchasing power" used here. From what I understand, The purchasing power of the majority of the population is still limited to locally produced goods (or within the SE Asian area/territorries). So the only segment of the population with the ability to buy foreign branded goods are the super wealthy, which makes up a tiny fraction of the population. Perhaps the term describes the purchasing power of the manufacturing industry for raw material to produce goods for export?