Recently in June, it joined together with three other major emerging economies — Brazil, Russia and India — to hold a summit meeting in Yekaterinburg, Russia. This brings together the world's two most populous countries — China and India — plus Russia, the world's biggest country in terms of territory, and Brazil, the largest country in Latin America.

These four countries, which account for more than a quarter of the world's land area and more than 40% of the earth's population, were first put together and labeled BRIC in 2001 by Goldman Sachs. It argued that these four were all developing rapidly and, by 2050, they could eclipse the combined economies of the current richest countries of the world.

Interestingly, Goldman Sach's BRIC concept caught on and the four countries began to hold meetings at foreign minister level before moving on to their first summit on June 16. At the end of the meeting, they made clear that such summits will be held every year, with the next one to be held in Brazil.

A joint statement issued by this new club at the end of the one-day meeting announced that the four leaders - Hu Jintao of China, Dimitry Medvedev of Russia, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Manmohan Singh of India - had discussed the current global economic situation and prospects for strengthening collaboration.

The BRIC countries clearly see themselves as major international players. “We are committed to advance the reform of international financial institutions, so as to reflect changes in the world economy,” their joint statement said. “The emerging and developing economies must have a greater voice and representation in international financial institutions. We also believe that there is a strong need for a stable, predictable and more diversified international monetary system.”

One word can be used to sum up what these four large, increasingly important, countries want: fairness.

The host, Russia's Medvedev, said in his final statement: “We talked about making the decision-making process on the most important international issues — on the economic agenda, the interntional political agenda on security —fairer.” He said the BRIC countries wanted to “create the conditions for a fairer world order.”

China and the three other countries feel that the existing system does not give them, and other emerging economies, a big enough voice. They seek a “multipolar world order” in which no one country will dominate.

Clearly, this means that they want to see the end of an era of dominance by the United States. Recent statements by the Obama administration indicate that Washington is prepared to accept a more equitable system.

Russia and Brazil were vocal before the summit about the need to reduce the role of the American dollar. However, the final communique was silent on this subject.

That could well reflect China's influence. While China, too, has suggested a new reserve currency to replace the dollar, it realizes that the time is not yet ripe and it has no intention of confronting the new Obama administration on this issue.

And China's voice within the grouping is one of the strongest. After all, China's GDP is roughly the size of the three other countries combined.

However, within days of the ending of the summit, China made it clear that it remains dissatisfied with the dollar's global domination. The People's Bank of China repeated its call for the creation of a new super-sovereign currency to replace the dollar as the world's reserve currency.

China's central bank said there were serious defects in one currency dominating the global monetary system. It urged closer supervision of countries that issue the main reserve currencies.

Clearly, change is afoot and China wants to shape a new financial system that will be seen by emerging countries as more equitable. This is likely to happen in any event. Jim O'Neill, head of global economic research for Goldman Sachs, the man who coined the term BRIC, now predicts that “in less than 20 years, the combined GDP of the BRIC countries could be as big as the G-7.”

When that happens, there would have been a major shift in the balance of the world's wealth. The BRIC countries, by then relatively wealthy, will surely have a bigger voice. It remains to be seen, however, whether the poorer countries of the world will still be clamoring that their views are not sufficiently represented in global financial councils.

Frank.ching@gmail.com