The big China news so far this week was, of course, the launching of their first indigenously built aircraft carrier (yet to be named) – the reverse engineered copy of their ex-Soviet/Ukranian Kuznetsnov Class CV Varyag (née Riga), the now Liaoning.
It is easy to get distracted by individual events as China’s navy continues to grow in size, quality, and experience. To better understand the challenge they will present at sea as we approach the middle decades of the 21st Century, you have to look at the economic growth of China as a whole over the last few decades.
We are only on the cusp of her return to the global stage after generations of drift and distraction.
In the latest edition of The Economist, there is a must-read Special Report on Asian Geopolitics. It can help focus the mind on the long term direction of China.
Yes, there are demographic and structural economic challenges that China will have to face, but so do other major powers in the next few decades.
If you have time, read it all, but if not … just look and ponder at these two graphs and the story they tell.