How does the rise of China effect our collective understanding of the rise and fall of nations and empires?

I read a quote that read "Someone who has never watched an empire from the beginning to the end cannot become a complete person."<br><br>I think this is really profound given that nations and empires now seem to last longer than they used to once upon a time. The rise and fall of empires in ancient times felt much faster than the rise and fall of nations in today's world. If one were to be born in the United States in 1776 they would still not have seen the full rise and fall of the nation yet given that the US is still going. If someone were to born in Russia when Lenin gained power they would still be alive today, and the Russian state still exists. The same cannot be said if one were to be born in the Qin Empire upon its foundation, and they would not have been alive to see the rise and fall of the Han, and nor would they have been alive to see the rise and fall of further dynasties like the Ming, Qing, or the Imperial China's final dynasty the Qing. <br><br>This is all to say, China is uniquely fascinating in that it appears that China is rising incredibly fast, and we have a front row seat to seeing this occur. I am assuming that the rise and fall of China will either be slower than the rise and fall of nations in ancient times and perhaps more similar to the pace of a modern nation (i.e. nothing like the pace of the Qin or Mongol or Roman or Dacian empires, but rather something more similar to the US).<br><br>But, given that this is the first time that 4-5 billion people have been alive at once to witness the rise of a nation state, it begs the question of how we as a collective should be looking at the rise of China in the context of other nations and empires throughout history. It seems like China's rise can teach us a lot about nation building, and I am curious as to what we can learn from China rising, and more specifically how nations fall.