A comfortable narrative dominates our understanding of the early 21st century: China joined the World Trade Organisation in 2001, and everything changed.
Factory towns in Ohio hollowed out whilst Shenzhen boomed. The Middle Kingdom reclaimed its place at the centre of global commerce. End of story.
Except it isn’t.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth that Washington would rather you forgot: the real transformation of our era wasn’t China’s peaceful commercial ascent but America’s violent military descent into the Middle Eastern quagmire.
And here’s the kicker – the rest of the world picked up the tab, twice over.
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