This decade belonged to China. So will the next one Martin Jacques

The west is still finding it extraordinarily difficult to come to terms with China’s remarkable ascent

The West took over the world by military conquest and technological achievement, but China is now doing the same, but only with technology and commerce. China's wealth is built by hard work, not conquest.

Many Western economists and academics said China was an economy built on steroids with printed money and would soon collapse, but it was the West that collapsed instead - in 2008 - and we are still suffering the consequences.

By 2010, China was beginning to have an impact on the global consciousness in a new way. Prior to the western financial crisis, it had been seen as the new but very junior kid on the block. The financial crash changed all that. Before 2008 the conventional western wisdom had been that sooner or later China would suffer a big economic meltdown. It never did. Instead, the crisis happened in the west, with huge consequences for the latter’s stability and self-confidence.

The Guardian

This decade belonged to China. So will the next one Martin Jacques