The People's Republic of China emerged as a great power and one of the three big players in the tri-polar geopolitics (PRC-US-USSR) during the late Cold war (1956-1991), after the Korean war in 1950-1953 and the Sino-Soviet split in the 1960s, with its status as a recognized nuclear weapons state in 1960s. Currently, China has the world's largest population, second largest GDP (nominal) and the largest economy in the world by PPP. China is now considered an emerging global superpower.
