Has China reached the peak of its powers?

Has China reached the peak of its powers?
In 2023 China’s population, now 1.4 billion, will probably start to shrink, and India will become the world’s most populous country. (Image: Getty)
The Economist
By Roger McShane, China Editor, The EconomistEven in his moment of triumph, Xi Jinping admitted that dark clouds hang over China. At the Communist party’s five-yearly congress in October, Xi secured a precedent-trampling third term as party chief. Speaking before some 2,300 party delegates in Beijing, the “helmsman”, as he is now called in state media (with worrying echoes of the worship of Mao Zedong more than half a century ago), described a decade of mostly smooth sailing under his rule. Extreme poverty has b...

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