The Chinese economy was never the global leader in any area till last decade. But the strong economic growth of China in the last six to seven years has made every other country sit and think about China. Now China single handedly is able to push up or down the demand for any commodity.
The crude oil prices have hit a new year high of 75 dollars yesterday, only due to a 7% spike up in Chinese demand. Similarly most of the other industrial commodities like metals, iron ore, coal etc., have been going up by anything between 30% to 60% in the last one year, only due to spike up in Chinese demand.
If there is a global recovery, then the Chinese dominance on the world might increase further, as it would grow faster than other countries. And for God known reasons, if we see a Chinese economic collapse, that can pull down the commodity prices single handedly. And that is anyway not ruled out.
China to lead global commodity push