With the world order undergoing shifts amounting to an earthquake, Mick Dunford’s (2023) article provides an illuminating historical account of the seismic activity in which that earthquake principally originated: the material development of the People’s Republic of China, its course and its determinants. While it is common to refer to this earthquake with general labels like ‘the advance of multipolarity’, ‘the rise of the rest’, ‘the shift in the centre of gravity of the world economy away from the West’ or ‘the rise of the BRICS [Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa]’, the contribution of the People’s Republic of China in this development is so overwhelming that telling the story of this shift in the world order without singling it out is like staging Hamlet without the prince.
