According to the passage, China is a leading buyer of _________. [br] [original

With tens of billions of dollars on the line, U.S. chip makers like the look of the Chinese market. Personal computer use is increasing exponentially. The country is a leading purchaser of used semiconductor-manufacturing equipment, and its research institutions are turning out very talented software developers. A forecast by Dataquest Inc. of San Jose predicts that China’s semiconductor market will balloon some 266 percent to $ 5.5 billion in 1997 from $1.5 billion in 1993, compared with 46 percent growth in North America and 29 percent in Japan during the period. Some even said that China will be the world’s largest market in 10 to 1S years.
   "In the long term, anybody who is not looking at the semiconductor industry in China has missed the boat." Said Nell McGlone, spokesman for Dallas -based Texas Instruments.
     Still China consumes just a fraction of all chips produced globally.
    China meets roughly 20 percent of its own chip needs. The figure represents chips used in low-end devices such radios, television sets, refrigerators and washing machines.