Hello, my name is Mr. March, and I'm here today to teach you all about evaluating China's status as a global superpower.

So grab everything that you need for today's lesson and let's get going.

So by the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to describe ways in which China is changing and explain why the country is called a global superpower.

There are four key terms for today's lesson, and those are economy, income, poverty, and inequality.

Economy refers to the way money in a particular area is made and spent.

Income refers to money received for work, either informal, or on a regular basis, or from investments.

Poverty refers to not having enough money to afford basic human needs, such as food, clothing, or somewhere to live.

And finally, inequality refers to when something is not shared evenly between everyone.

We have two learning cycles for today's lesson.

We're gonna start with the first learning cycle, which is why is China called a global superpower? China has the world's second largest economy, just behind the United States of America.

The United States of America has a economy worth around $30 trillion per year, whilst China's is worth around $17.

8 trillion as of 2023.

Now, Lucas has shown what $17.

8 trillion looks like when it's written out in numbers, and you can see it is absolutely enormous, whilst Aisha says that 17.

8 trillion seconds is around 564,000 years.

So we really get a sense of the huge numbers that we're talking about here.

China's also one of the world's fastest growing economies, and it's slowly, slowly catching up on the United States' economy.

We can see that with this graph right here, which is showing just how China's economy has grown so rapidly since the mid 1990s.

This line graph then is showing how average annual income per person in China has increased since 1995.

In 1995, average income per person was down at around two and a half thousand dollars.

Fast forward to today and it's somewhere between 20 and $25,000 per person per year.

That is on average.

So we've seen a huge, rapid increase in just the past 20 to 30 years.

What do you think was the main cause of this slight dip in GDP just before 2020? So a learning check, and it says, what was China's economy worth in 2023? You have four options right there in front of you.

What you need to do is pause the video whilst you try to recall that piece of information and select what you think is the correct answer.

And the correct answer was c, $17.

8 trillion, and it is the second largest economy anywhere in the world, just behind the USA, which has a staggering economy worth $30 trillion.

So really, really well done if you're able to get c as the correct answer.

More and more people are now calling China a global superpower, but what is a global superpower? Well, a global superpower is used to describe a country that has a lot of power or influence over other countries and places in the world.

Now, what do you think the characteristics of a global superpower actually are? You may like to pause the video here whilst you consider your own answer to that question or perhaps even discuss it with someone near you.

So what did you come up with then? Let's see if my answers tally with what you came up with just a moment ago, because there are many different factors which make a global superpower powerful, beginning with economic.

Now, as we looked at before, China's economy is second ranked in the world.

It's the second largest anywhere in the world.

And this really gives it a lot of economic influence.

As we know, China exports and manufactures many, many goods around the world, and this gives it economic influence around the world.

So it creates a lot of jobs, it creates a lot of products, but also, it's able to control markets around the world and thereby give it influence around the world.

Now, with its growing economy, it's also able to invest in its military.

And increasingly, we're seeing China develop a very modern and large military, which can then also influence global affairs.

Next, we have that political influence.

Perhaps as a result of the economic and military capabilities it has, it's able to exert itself more and more on the global stage in a political sense as well.

Now, China's population is enormous as well.

It is the second largest anywhere in the world, just behind India.

It has a population of just over 1.

4 billion people.

And just in terms of numbers and size of the population, this gives it a huge amount of power in terms of manpower with its economy, perhaps in terms of its manpower in terms of its military as well.

Resources, again, China is an enormous country with a huge amount of natural resources, and therefore it is not dependent on other countries that has its own natural resources, which it can use for its own manufacturing or perhaps even exports and sale through to other countries.

Were it to withhold the sale of those natural resources, again, it holds influence and power over other countries who are buying from China.

We also have cultural influence as well.

So cultural influence can be seen perhaps through China's entertainment industry and other such avenues as well for entertainment and culture, whereby it's able to sort of influence and exert its culture onto other regions and other countries around the world.

So why do you think China is often called a global superpower? You may like to pause the video here whilst you consider your own answer to that question or perhaps even discuss it with someone near you.

So we're onto a learning check, and it says to complete the missing words to show the different factors that make a global superpower powerful.

So what I want you to do then is pause the video here whilst you do your best to fill in those three gaps that you can see.

Best of luck.

And the three correct answers were economic influence, population, and finally, resources.

Really, really well done if you're able to get those three answers correct.

So we're now to our one and only practise question for the first learning cycle, and it says, why is China called a global superpower? Now, on the next slide, I want you to read through the different statements, and you might want to cut the statements out and sort them into different groups to help your thinking.

You might decide that some statements are more useful than others.

And I want you to use this information to come up with your own answer to the question, why is China called a global superpower? You may also like to share your ideas with someone else as well.

And here are those statements.

In total you have 18 different statements.

So what I want you to do then is pause the video at this point.

I want you to read through those 18 different statements and then I want you to attempt this practise question.

So best of luck.

In terms of feedback then, here are some possible ideas you may have had.

Now Lucas says that China has a very large population, which means that there are lots of people to work and build its economy.

Aisha says that China has one of the world's largest economies.

This means that it has more money to spend on developing infrastructure, such as roads and railways.

Finally, Sam, she says that Chinese culture has influenced many parts of the world.

Chinese food is very popular here in the UK.

So you can see how Lucas, Sam, and Aisha have touched on different areas of China's influence around the world.

Now, you may have come up with different ideas as well, perhaps related to their military or their political influence as well.

So really, really well done for this practise question.

And let's move on.

So we're on now to our second learning cycle, and it says, how is China changing? Now, China's changed in many ways in recent years, and many people do believe that China will continue to change rapidly in the future.

I have two questions on the screen here for you to consider.

What do you think some of these changes will actually be? And also, how might these changes even be measured? So you might like to pause the video here whilst you consider your own answer to those two very challenging questions, or perhaps even discuss it with someone near you.

Now, in geography, we love to use something called indicators to help us measure and compare how well countries are doing.

And here are some examples.

So the first thing we can look at is the size of the country's economy.

We can look at its economic growth.

And we looked at this earlier in the lesson, didn't we, where we saw China's economy was worth $17.

8 trillion, and we saw that it's ranked second around the world.

We can see how equal the lives of people are.

We can look at inequality scores between the rich and the poor.

We can look at average life expectancy.

And from this, we can understand the quality of healthcare or lack of quality of healthcare perhaps in that country based on how long people are living for on average.

We can look at how many people are also living in poverty to understand the distribution of wealth and also the distribution of income.

We can look at how many children are able to get a good education.

Yes, we can look at literacy rates as well in terms of percentage.

And from that, we can understand how well developed and accessible education is for people in that country.

And finally, we can look at access to clean water, sanitation, and electricity as an indication of how well developed a country's society and services actually are.

So this graph then is showing us average life expectancy at birth, and it's showing us how it has changed over time in China.

If we go back, for example, back to 1930, we can see that people were expected to live until the age of about 32, if you were born in 1930.

Fast forward to 2023, if you're born in 2023 in China, you will have an average life expectancy of just below 80 years.

Look at that transformation in less than 100 years.

In less than 100 years, people in China are now living just less than 50 years more than they were back in 1930.

It's a phenomenal transformation.

We can see here this very interesting dip.

And this dip is caused by the 1959 to 1961 severe famine.

That is what caused this dip in life expectancy.

Average life expectancy has increased in the last 100 years, not just in China but around the world too.

But why do you think this is? You may like to pause the video here whilst you consider your own answer to that question, or once again perhaps discuss it with someone near you.

China's also made rapid progress in reducing the number of people living in poverty.

And this line graph, once again, does a great job in showing that.

Look at that.

In 1981, the number of people living in poverty was up around 90%.

Fast forward to today and it's almost down at 0%.

It is a stunning transformation.

It speaks volumes about China's economic growth.

In 1981 then, around 9 in 10 people in China lived in extreme poverty.

Extreme poverty then has all but been eliminated in China.

And as I said once again, it speaks volumes about China's economic growth and how it has been able to distribute that wealth even to the most poor people in its society.

How do you think this decrease was actually achieved? Again, you may like to pause the video here whilst you consider your answer to that question.

Now, over the past 40 years, the number of people in China living in that extreme poverty has fallen by 800 million people.

And as Jun says, China's rapid economic growth means that average incomes in China have increased.

And as Sam says, this has helped to raise living standards for millions of people across the country.

So a learning check.

It says, how has average life expectancy at birth in China changed over the last 100 years? You have three options there.

So what I want you to do is pause the video whilst you consider and then select your answer.

And the correct answer was b, increased.

Really, really well done if you've got that answer correct.

And as Aisha says, in 1930, average life expectancy in China was just 32 years, yet in 2023, it is now up at 78 years, a truly phenomenal transformation.

Now, progress has also been made in many, many other areas, including education, because in 1970, around 26% of secondary aged young people were enrolled in school, just 26%, just over one in four people were enrolled in education by secondary school age.

Fast forward to 2012 and that has increased at 93%.

Over 9 in 10 people now are enrolled in school at the age of secondary school age.

So my question to you is what are the consequences then of more young people being able to go to school? You may like to pause the video here whilst you think of those different impacts.

In terms of living conditions then, we've seen a massive improvement for many people across China.

Look at this.

In 2000, only 13% of the population we're using safely managed sanitation services.

We're talking about waste here.

Yet, fast forward 22 years, and this had increased to 67%.

Now, safely managed means sanitation facilities that aren't shared with other households and where waste is safely disposed of or transported for treating elsewhere.

So look at that transformation there just in living conditions.

It's things that perhaps we take for granted here in the UK, but look at that transformation in just 22 years and the massive improvement in terms of living conditions for people across China.

However, levels of inequality are rising.

And as Lucas says, in 2024, there were 406 billionaires in China.

Together they were worth $1.

3 trillion.

Again, that speaks volumes about China's economic growth, doesn't it, and its accumulation of wealth.

But as Izzy rightly says, millions of people in China struggle to meet their daily living needs.

So we have a huge contrast between the super rich on the left and the super poor on the right.

People's lives are unequal though in many, many different ways.

So this graph goes into detail about this inequality in China because this graph is showing China's total income and how it is shared among its population and how this distribution has changed over time.

Let's try and analyse that a little bit more.

So the red line is the share of the richest 10% of the population, and it shows it to be about 45%.

So 10% of the population own about 45% of China's total wealth, whilst the share of the poorest 50% of the population is about 14%.

So let me just repeat that again.

The bottom half of China's population, the bottom 50%, the poorest 50% of China's population, own only 14% of the nation's wealth, whilst the top 10% of China's population own about 45% of the nation's wealth.

So you can see a massive divide or a massive gap between the super rich and the super poor.

Time now for a learning check, and it says, what was the difference between the percentage of China's population using safely managed sanitation services in 2000 and the percentage in 2022? So what you need to do right now then is pause the video whilst you try your best to recall that piece of information and then attempt the question.

So best of luck.

And the correct answer was b, 54%.

Let's have a look at that again.

So in 2000, the percentage was down at 13%.

But fast forward to 2022, and that raised to 67%, meaning that the differential was 54%.

Really, really well done if you're able to recall that piece of information.

Another learning check.

It says true or false.

Inequality is just about the difference in how much money people earn.

So once again, you need to pause the video whilst you consider as to whether this statement is true or false.

And the answer was false.

Now, once again, I'd like you to pause the video whilst you consider as to why this statement is false.

And the reason it's false is, well, because people's lives are unequal in many different ways.

Inequality has also to do with opportunities that people have or don't have.

And this may be related to things like education, healthcare, and other access to different services as well, such as electricity, water, and sanitation.

So it is not only to do with income, although that is a big part of it.

Now, China's political system, and it is a communist political system and has been, for many, many decades, run by the Chinese Communist Party, affects some of the rights and freedoms that Chinese people have.

The internet, media, such as newspapers, radio, and television, are closely controlled by the government, something that we're not used to here in the UK.

This restricts the information that people are able to access and makes it difficult for anyone to criticise the government.

There are also frequent reports of the rights of some people in China being abused in different ways.

Yes, depending on what you say, there is a chance that you can be thrown in prison for just perhaps speaking your mind or criticising the government.

So you can see how the government is very strict in terms of what you can and can't say.

It is true though that many, many people in China seem very happy with the way the government runs the country.

Remember, living standards for most of the population have improved drastically within the last 20 to 30 years.

But there have been rising numbers of protests by people who are unhappy about some of the ways in which China is governed.

So a quick learning check.

It says, what is the name of the political party in China that runs the government and makes most of the decisions? What you need to do right now then is pause the video whilst you read through those four options and select what you consider to be the correct answer.

And the correct answer was a, the Chinese Communist Party.

Really, really well done if you've got that answer correct.

We're on now to our two final practise questions for this final learning cycle.

And it says, interpreting data is a very important skill in geography.

And the data, which is shown to you on the next slide, in that table, shows how different indicators have changed in China over time.

Your first task is to complete the table by calculating the difference in the value of each indicator between 2002 and 2021.

The second task then is to describe what the data shows about how living conditions in China have changed.

Here is that table that I was speaking to you about before.

So what I want you to do then is pause the video at this point and attempt those two practise tasks.

Best of luck.

And now for some feedback.

And your job then was to work at the difference between the data from 2002 and the data from 2021.

And the first is then 2.

2 years, then it is 5.

2 years, then it is $10,840, then it is 51.

4%, and finally 36.

9%.

In terms of the feedback for the second question, you need to describe how living conditions have changed between those years.

And your answer may have looked something like this.

It says, this data suggests that living conditions in China have improved for many people.

Life expectancy and average income per person have risen.

The average years of schooling adults have risen and there have also been an increase in access to safely managed sanitation services.

The proportion of the population living in extreme poverty has also fallen from more than a third to 0%.

So really, really well done if you're able to include anything like that in your own answer.

And finally, as Sam says, you may want to think about how China might change into the future and perhaps even share your ideas with someone else.

And as Aisha says, perhaps you could research other indicators that can be used to measure and compare how well different countries are doing.

We're on now to our learning summary and what you need to know from today's lesson.

Well, China has the second largest economy in the world.

It was worth $17.

8 trillion in 2023.

Different indicators can be used to measure how China has changed over time.

The term global superpower is used to describe a country that has a lot of power or influence over other countries and places around the world.

And finally, China's political system affects some of the rights and freedoms that Chinese people have.

So really, really well done during today's lesson.

It was a pleasure teaching you.

And I will see you again on the next lesson.

Goodbye.