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- a matter of perspective
- Déjà vu
"Throughout the whole of South East Asia, trade was focused on Malacca and dominated by the Chinese. China consumed a hundred times more spice than distant Europe, and the Chinese merchants not only controlled commodity and currency markets but property prices too, even amusement and gambling."
The year, 1421
Extract from: "1421” by G. Menzies
A Chinese treasure ship of 1421 compared with the ship in which Columbus discovered the New World some 75 years later.
Our perception of China is clouded by recent history. If we go back a little further we can fully appreciate the contribution that China has made to the World.
chinese inventions (Source DKT China)
Silk 2640BC 
Fired stoneware 1500BC Decimal system 1350BC Cast iron 550BC Iron plough 500BC The crossbow 500BC Magnetic compass 350BC Paper 175BC Sorting silk cocoons The wheel barrow 150BC 
Stirrups 150AD Seismometer 175AD Woodblock printing 500AD Porcelain 500AD Gunpowder 600AD Paper money 850AD Abacus 1200AD A Mongol bomb thrown against a charging Japanese samurai during the Mongol invasions of Japan, 1281
Cargo ships 1400AD
the dragon returns to the 1st world
GDP of 2014:
China $US 10,360 billion United States $US 17,419 billion European Union $US 18,460 billion
The Economist：
"Totting it all up, we now see 2021 as the year of China’s re-emergence as the world’s biggest economy."
However, China's new leadership is poised to allow slower growth as it tries to shake off the focus on exceptional levels of growth and put social progress and environmental welfare at the top of the nation's agenda.