For decades, the story of China’s rise was framed as an economic miracle, the workshop of the world, producing cheap goods that filled American homes and fueled corporate profit.

But today, the narrative has become very different.

The United States now calls China its greatest threat; tariffs, sanctions and military posturing dominate the headlines.

When Washington says China is dangerous, the focus is often on ideology or military power, but the deeper story is about economics and about how China’s rise has upset a system the West has relied on for centuries.

That system depends on a global divide. Wealthy countries at the core extract value from cheaper labor and resources in the Global South, this unequal exchange has long powered Western prosperity.

When China opened to foreign investments in the 1980s it became central to this arrangement.

Apple, for example, built its empire on the backs of low wage but highly skilled Chinese workers.

In 2005, Chinese factory wages averaged less than $1 an hour, today, it is over $8, which is higher than every other developing country in Asia.

The result is transformative for Chinese workers, better pay, health care, housing, but disastrous for Western firms whose profits rely on keeping labor costs down.

For Washington, this isn’t just a shift in numbers; it’s a shift in power. China is no longer the endless pool of cheap labor it once was, and that makes the global order as America has known it harder to sustain.

Rising wages also changed the terms of trade. For decades, China had to export huge volumes of goods to afford the imports it needed. Today, that imbalance has narrowed.

The United States and its allies can no longer extract the same value from Chinese labor, consequently, US hostility sharpened.

The mid-2010s marked a turning point; China’s currency was no longer artificially low. Its wages were climbing, and its role as a mere supplier of cheap imports was fading.

Suddenly, ‘the China threat’ became a bipartisan talking point in Washington.

Wages are only part of the story, the most important part is technology where China’s progress has been staggering.

China now leads the world in high speed rail, produces most of its own commercial aircraft, and dominates renewable energy technology and electric vehicles.

It has advanced rapidly in artificial intelligence, semiconductors and biotechnology.

These are breakthroughs usually reserved for rich nations, yet China achieved them with far less wealth per person.

This matters because Western dominance has long depended on controlling advanced technology. Developing nations had to sell their raw materials cheap then buy expensive aircraft, computers and medicines from the west.

China is now breaking that monopoly offering alternatives to the global south and threatening US economic supremacy.

The American response came in the form of sanctions on Chinese tech firms, bans on the export of advanced chips and restrictions on investments.

But rather than crippling Beijing, the pressure has only accelerated China’s push for self reliance, with sanctions falling short, Washington’s rhetoric has grown more heated.

Politicians claim China poses a military danger to the world. The numbers don’t add up.

China spends one tenth per capita on defense compared to the United States. It has one overseas military base. The US has hundreds.

China hasn’t fired a bullet in international war for over 40 years, while America has intervened in more than a dozen countries during the same time.

So what is really at stake? Not democracy versus authoritarianism, but military dominance. It’s about sovereignty and profit.

China’s rise undermines the global arrangements that keeps the west on top, and that, more than anything else, explains why Washington’s rhetoric has turned so hostile.

Behind the talks of threats and security, the deeper fear in Washington is losing control of the world’s economic future.

For the first time in generations, there’s a real alternative, and it’s coming from Beijing.