There’s a new saying now, as China goes, so goes the world. Since 1979, China has transformed the way it engages with the rest of the world and has become one of the largest economies. Furthermore, it is on its way to become the largest economy due to an annual average growth rate of 9.8 per cent for over three decades. Today, it is the world’s largest steel producer in the world, ranks first place in car manufacturing, and has surpassed the United States and India in terms of producing cotton. However, over a century ago, China’s GDP was reduced to 9% and had a limited economy focused on domestic industry.

Foreign intervention, treaties and concessions ultimately played significant roles in shaping the Chinese economy by the 1920’s. Prior to the Opium Wars of the mid-nineteenth century, China under the Qing Dynasty was once a world economic power and had an overall GDP of 32%. However, after signing a series of “unequal treaties” with Western powers, China lost much of its political and economic sovereignty. The decades between 1860 and 1920 were littered with foreign-imposed concessions and had a tremendous impact on the development of its economy during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

In addition, China was chronically in debt in the early 20th Century. This was subsequently a result of the Japanese and Boxer Protocol indemnities settled on her by these same powers – a condition that gave foreign nations more leverage in negotiations to expand their spheres of territorial influence. As a consequence, the terms of Chinese external loans led directly to a backlash against foreign ownership of Chinese capital and foreign encroachment on Chinese sovereignty This eventual led to a “battle for concessions” that almost led to China’s dismemberment and contributed to the manifestations of coups that finally overthrew the Qing Dynasty in 1911. Although foreign encroachment began to decline following the 1920’s, it left a lasting mark on China’s globalization.