China is on its way to becoming the world's largest economic superpower. Most economists expect China's economy to surpass the size of the U.S. economy sometime in the next few decades.
To those who grew up in the latter half of the 20th Century, China's rise seems startling. How did China come out of nowhere in only a few decades to dominate the world?
But when you take a longer view of history, this rise isn't surprising. It's just the balance of world economic power returning to normal.
The chart below from Ian Bremmer of Eurasia Group shows the share of world GDP from the birth of Christ to the modern day.
As you can see, it's the U.S. that is the overnight success. And in terms of global share, we're already on the decline.
China's economy is just returning to its normal place in the world...
