Repeat after me: Never underestimate China

THE year 2025 has been full of dramatic twists and turns. At the onset of the year, China’s economy was left for dead. Economists were predicting lost decades akin to what Japan experienced in the 1990s, and its dominance of manufacturing was being challenged by US President Donald Trump and the drive by exporters to diversify their supply chains and move operations abroad.

Now, the perception could not be any more different. Chinese President Xi Jinping was the only foreign leader who stood up to Trump’s bullying tactics on trade, and forced him to back down by weaponising Beijing’s control of rare earth materials. It has kept its status as the world’s most vibrant factory.

How did China manage to shake off its malaise and dazzle the world with DeepSeek moments in tech, biotech and even defence? Were the seeds of success always there, and elites in the West simply chose not to see them? It is a bit of both.