It has been almost exactly a year since China beat Covid-19. By early March 2020, daily new case numbers had fallen below 100. By the end of the month, even Wuhan was nearing the end of its lockdown. Since then the case numbers have remained low (but for a couple of subsequently contained regional outbreaks) and the country’s economy has roared back. Despite the intense lockdowns early in the year it grew overall by 2.3 per cent over 2020, the most of any major economy.
A recent report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research think-tank predicts that China will now overtake the US to become the world’s largest economy in 2028, five years earlier than previously expected. The New York Times reports on a recent speech by a regional Chinese official quoting Xi Jinping, the country’s president, observing behind closed doors that “the east is rising and the West is declining”.
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