In the fourteenth century, China was the lead country in terms of per capita income and maritime technology. Early in the Ming dynasty, it turned its back on the world economy. By the sixteenth century, Western Europe had overtaken China in per capita income, technology and scientific knowledge, but China’s bureaucratic elite was ethnocentric and indifferent to developments outside China. Between 1820 and 1950, per capita income fell from 90 per cent to 20 per cent of the world average due mainly to civil wars and the intrusions of foreign colonialists. 1949 brought a sharp change in the political regime which was a successful defender of China’s national integrity, but operated with minimal links to the world economy. After 1978, pragmatic reforms brought a massive increase in interaction with the world economy, and a great acceleration of economic growth. It seems highly likely that by 2030, China will be the world’s biggest economy