Many Western economists have predicted the coming collapse of China, but the world's second-largest economy continues to demonstrate its resilience and confound the pessimists. It will soon overtake the US in terms of overall GDP, having already become the world's top trading and investor nation. But its importance is not limited to the world of business and ¿nance; China has become a more signi¿cant and more con¿dent country in terms of global politics, technology, the environment and culture.

Dr. Wang Wen is executive dean of Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, one of the fastest-growing and most in¿uential think tanks in China. His reports have provided the Chinese government with a range of policy advice and radical thinking. In this series of essays and speeches, he explores some of the most important and challenging issues facing China today, including how it will cope with the mantle of being the largest economy, what it hopes to achieve with the Belt and Road initiative, its contribution to global governance, the free trade system, climate change, Sino-US relations and the future of manufacturing in China.