Over the past 150 years China moved from a closed, self-sufficient economy to the world's largest trading nation through forced opening after the Opium Wars, a Soviet-style planned economy, Deng Xiaoping's 1978 market reforms, and WTO accession in 2001, with industrial policy now pushing it up the value chain into sectors like electric vehicles.

China’s rise was powered by an export-led growth model reinforced by trade liberalisation, place-based and industrial policies, massive infrastructure investment, and a governance system that strongly incentivised local growth.

The economic consequences of leaving the EU are at the heart of the Brexit debate. This column studies how changes in trade and fiscal transfers to the EU following Brexit would affect living standards in the UK. Across a range of scenarios, Brexit l...