The Chinese Communist Party set an unprecedented goal to eradicate poverty in China by the end of 2020. While Chinese President Xi Jinping officially declared a “major victory” over poverty in December 2020, hundreds of millions of people in China continue to struggle with low incomes and poor standards of living.
As part of sweeping efforts to modernize the People’s Liberation Army, China has developed the world’s largest and most diverse arsenal of land-based conventional missiles. Learn how China’s missile forces are evolving and how they are affecting the Indo-Pacific security landscape in our exclusive feature.
China has established itself as the dominant global supplier of rare earths, a group of 17 minerals that are crucial to countless advanced technologies. China’s capacity to disrupt global rare earth supply chains has raised alarm bells in several major countries, but Beijing’s influence within the industry is likely to be eroded in the coming years.
Successfully managing the threat of pandemics and epidemics requires advanced capabilities and robust resources. Decades of economic development have enhanced China’s ability to defend against infectious diseases, but the outbreak of COVID-19 laid bare critical health security weaknesses.
There are nearly as many currencies in use around the world as there are countries, but only a handful of currencies are widely used outside of their home economies. While China has found some initial success at internationalizing the renminbi, it faces an uphill battle in shaking up the global currency hierarchy.
Ongoing economic modernization has expanded access to safe drinking water for hundreds of millions of people in China, but it has also severely polluted and taxed the country’s water resources. Leaders in Beijing have taken steps to address water security threats, but considerable obstacles persist.
China is one of only nine countries that possesses nuclear weapons. Although its nuclear arsenal is small relative to those of the United States and Russia, China is rapidly expanding and modernizing its nuclear forces and may be significantly shifting its nuclear policies.
Conducting activities in space embodies the pinnacle of technological achievement. Only a handful of countries have the capability to indigenously launch payloads into space. China sits among this elite group, but closing the technology gap with more-advanced space powers will require China to make significant headway.
