The Rise of China and the Emerging Powers of the BRICS

China implemented gradual economic reforms beginning in 1978 under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping, introducing market elements into its socialist economy. Special economic zones were established that attracted foreign direct investment and facilitated Chinese industrial exports, and China sustained extraordinarily high growth rates during the 1990s and 2000s. Its accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001 significantly accelerated its integration into the global economy, and China progressively became the world's leading manufacturing hub, popularly known as the "world's factory." The country underwent a major demographic transformation, with massive internal migration from the countryside to urban and industrial centers, and it became the world's second-largest economy by nominal GDP, overtaking Japan in 2010.