Home to almost a fifth of the world’s near 8 billion population, China is a country of contrasts and sometimes contradictions. In just the last four decades, China has gone from a country in the middle of the world’s largest famine with an estimated 30 million of its citizens dying of starvation between the spring of 1959 and the end of 1961, to an economic powerhouse second only to the United States.
It transformed itself into a global leader in technology and manufacturing by boasting an annual economic growth of 10%. Despite former President Donald Trump initiating a trade war with them back in 2018, citing foreign imports as a national security threat, the International Monetary Fund predicted that China’s economy would grow by 3.3% in 2022 and the Worldbank suggested it could be as high as 5%.
So how much of a threat to the US, and the rest of the world, is China? Here we look at 7 reasons why China’s position on the global stage should worry us all.
