Peter Frankopan

Peter Frankopan is professor of global history at Oxford University and author of The Earth Transformed: An Untold History

A devilish instrument of war

From our UK edition

‘China is a sleeping lion,’ Napoleon reportedly remarked. ‘When it wakes, the world will tremble.’ There is no need to fear China, its current leaders are quick to stress — with President Xi Jinping claiming that the country’s rise will be ‘peaceful, pleasant and civilised’. Such words are of little comfort to hawks in the