China has in recent decades developed into a political and economic global powerhouse, passing by Russia in superpower terms and – in many respects – getting much closer to the United States. Is China in other words regaining its own historical status as the “Middle Kingdom” which still serves as the classical name for the modern China?
“Zhongguo” – then and today
In English, one usually applies the term of “Middle Kingdom” for the old China from back to some thousand years ago. Swedes speak about the “Mittens rike” and Germans about the “Reich der Mitte” – all of them expressing something like the “empire or country of the middle”.
Historically, the Chinese have been defining their country as “zhongguo” of which “zhong” meant middle and “guo” something like state or country. In the beginning, “zhongguo” was standing for the flourishing region along the Yellow River but started later to describe China as the self-image center of the universe. And still today, “zhongguo” is widely used by the Chinese and aims at the country as a whole and its sovereignty.
When regarding the latter aspect, I remember many discussions with the Chinese in the past two decades or so who seemed to be convinced that China rapidly was about to be re-organized as the political and economic center of the world. In many respects – though not all – this scenario of China’s ongoing move to really becoming the political and economic center of the modern world – is on its way to come true.
At least, we can recognize already some revival of the historical Chinese “Magic Kingdom” as the/a global center. But the Chinese political leadership certainly wants more than “some revival” …
I wish today all readers all the best until I come back after my summer break.
Hubert Fromlet Affiliate Professor at the School of Business and Economics, Linnaeus University
Currently, emerging markets are frequently suggested as interesting areas for financial portfolio investment, particularly since emerging markets as a group in 2025 managed to outperform stock markets in traditional OECD countries.
However, it should not be neglected that the analysis of emerging markets remains very difficult and needs quite some experience and understanding. Institutional, political and frequently also social shortcomings should be related to existing positive parameters in emerging countries. On the positive side, one may single out (mostly) decent or even good economic growth and comparative advantages such as young populations, low(er) labor costs compared to advanced countries, technological catch-up opportunities with improving productivity gains, and also commodity reserves.
Sources of misunderstanding
When trying to find emerging countries as a relevant area for financial portfolio investment, one can also discover quite a number of potential risks and traps. Some examples are summed up below.
# Emerging markets are not a homogenous group of countries – and certainly not even within the same continent either. For this reason, currency risks may differ from country to country. Currency developments may have a major impact on the return of an investment in foreign stock markets. This is why I always prefer to make my analysis country by country (even when there exist many similarities).
# Statistical shortcomings still can be found in most emerging countries; thus, the real state of the economy may look (somewhat) different from the positive impression that many times is given officially.
# Transparency in emerging countries may be insufficient also in other areas than statistics, for example to what extent existing good laws are applied consequently.
# In more general terms, one may point at the fact that institutional conditions may differ substantially between emerging countries despite similar growth rates of GDP. Institutions may have a major impact on the functionality of financial markets in different emerging countries which can induce decisive disparities when analyzing prospects for GDP growth.
# Ethical and financial stability rules (regulations) and their application in the financial system should play an important role for foreign investors as well – but also the quality of banking managers.
# It should be observed, too, that stock markets themselves in emerging countries may have different degrees of development and maturity, for example when it comes to liquidity and traded stock volumes. Sometimes trade volumes are very low.
# Furthermore, the political system of an emerging market can make a difference as regards credibility and trust. This issue can also influence the social stability of an emerging country.
# Last but not least, historical experience may be relevant for investors’ psychological attitude vis-a-vis stock business in a certain emerging market. This psychological aspect should not be underestimated when considering the probable stability of Western portfolio investments in emerging countries.
Financial markets in the emerging world more recently*
My comments and conclusions above are certainly applicable to many emerging countries – but to a varying extent in both frequency and depth. At the same time, it may be interesting to look somewhat further into the recent performance of some relevant stock markets in the world of emerging countries – and to have some words on the potential long-term outlook.
Stock markets in emerging countries as a group have been experiencing rapid expansion more recently and particularly since 2025. They performed better than stock markets in advanced countries, very much driven by AI in Asian countries and demand for commodities in other parts of the world – but also by geographical diversification strategies since the economic projections for the U.S. have become more uncertain.
Many experts believe these days – whatever this means – that emerging countries may achieve considerably higher equity returns over the next decade or so compared to more modest assumptions for the U.S. However, this positive outlook for emerging countries is very much based on continuous and undistorted progress in the infrastructure of AI, working commodity markets and political stability in mainly the U.S. and important Asian countries – something we currently do not know very much about.
We should also keep in mind that emerging countries still stand for only 12-13 percent of global stock market capitalization – but for the lion share of global GDP growth, i.e. around 70-75 percent more recently. These numbers may indicate a further structural long-term rise of stock-market capitalization in advanced emerging market countries.
The world is changing and has always been. The same can be said about emerging markets and the analysis of their market reforms which were particularly visible in many former planned European economies. At the same time, herd behaviour is not easy to foresee under global conditions where psychology will play an increasingly important role also for the economic development.
2014 onwards, the analysis of emerging markets got a new dimension. Covid 19 meant a new puzzling analytical conundrum during a few years. Now, it seems to be a safe forecast that politics will remain very important for the future analysis of emerging markets – probably increasingly important in a longer perspective. In this context, the analysis of China’s and Russia’s ambitions in the emerging world could become particularly interesting (without discussing India’s strong potential in this specific paper). The activities of the U.S. in emerging countries certainly not to forget! The future positioning of the EU in emerging countries seems to be more uncertain.
Altogether, geopolitical ambitions of the three global superpower countries will most probably gain further momentum in the analysis of emerging markets.
*The Online access to the full paper is through Elsevier or EBSCO which may be possible by library agreements of certain universities.
Hubert Fromlet Affiliate Professor at the School of Business and Economics, Linnaeus University
