Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz declared almost a decade ago that 2014 “was the last year in which the United States could claim to be the world’s largest economic power.”

It was, he claimed, the start of the “Chinese century”.

He was wrong: the US remains the world’s largest economy. Yet experts keep predicting that China will soon become the preeminent global superpower, now believing that China’s GDP will overtake America in the late 2030s.

This weekend, outgoing premier Li Keqiang is expected to reveal a new 5pc growth target at the National People’s Congress as Beijing seeks to get the country’s roaring economy back on track after Covid disruption.

Yet the “Chinese century” could soon have a double meaning – encapsulating not just the country’s stratospheric rise, but also its economic implosion.

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