Eastern time: China’s rise

view on espresso.economist.com -- Dec 19th 2018

Eastern time: China’s rise

When scholars of international relations predict that the 2000s will be a “Chinese century”, they are not being premature.

Although America remains the lone superpower, China is responsible for a remarkable share of global change.

• lone adj. 单独的；独自的；
• be responsible for 为…负责；是造成…的原因

Since the start of the financial crisis in 2008, for example, China has accounted for 45% of the gain in world GDP.

• financial crisis 金融危机
• account for 解释；占；说明…的原因

In 1990 some 750m Chinese people lived in extreme poverty; today fewer than 10m do.

Its GDP per person (in purchasing-power terms) has risen tenfold since 1990.

• tenfold 十倍的

China’s record has exerted a “gravitational pull” on the world’s economic output.

• gravitational pull 引力作用
• exert 发挥；尽；尽力

The Economist has calculated a geographic centre of the global economy by taking an average of each country’s latitude and longitude, weighted by its GDP.

• latitude 纬度
• longitude 经度
• weight 权重

At the height of America’s dominance, this point sat in the north Atlantic.

• dominance 优势；控制；权势；
• At the height of 在……顶点；在......的高峰；在…最鼎盛时期

But China has tugged it so far east that the global centre of economic gravity is now in Siberia.

• tug 拽；（朝某一方向用力）拉
• economic gravity 经济引力
• Siberia 西伯利亚

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为中华之崛起而奋斗！