This week’s cover

Our global cover this week asked: is China about to peak? In some senses, clearly not: its people will keep growing richer for many years to come, and its military might is increasing. But its economy cannot keep growing at the world-shaking pace of the past few decades. Its population is shrinking and ageing. Forecasters who once thought that China’s economy would soon be much larger than America’s now think that, at market exchange rates, it will never overtake it by much. Instead, the two superpowers face a long period of rough parity. We explore what that might mean for the world, and draw a surprisingly optimistic conclusion.