About book When China Rules The World: The End Of The Western World And The Birth Of A New Global Order (2008)
Martin Jacques is a little too in love with his thesis. At initial publication this book performed a valuable service. Pre-financial crisis, people probably did take an excessively relaxed view of the consequences of China's rise. This edition of the book, however, is very much a mid-crisis animal. Every chapter is suffused with the awareness of the West's rapid decline, and China's new power and prestige. This change in relative power is a fact, and the data that he marshals to support his point is an absolute treasure trove. I imagine I will be using his tables as a source in my writing for years to come.But I don't think it is just my American jingoism speaking, however, when I say that this is a little over-blown. We are not just a year or two from joining a Chinese tributary system. The Chinese will not be "ruling the world" in a decade or two. Jacques exhaustively documents many exceptions to his own thesis. The "Chinese Model" that he states will become more influential over the coming decades is impossible to set up without a billion Chinese people. The vicious racism of the Chinese people and their general lack of interest in the outside world is a pretty solid bar to their potential dominance. European racism came with an urge to explore, and an insuperable advantage in military technology. The Chinese won't have either. Yes, the Chinese make up 20% of the world population. As they become more powerful, however, the other 80% will become more united in its interest in containing China. I could not agree entirely with author. As a native Chinese, I don't really see the effect of Confucianism has on the modern China. Since the cultural revolution, there is a rupture in the inheritance of Confucianism. As of now, I don't see a serious revival of it. The author's arguments on the Confucianism as an important line of Civilization as the Hellenistic one, which provides a competing alternative to the "contested modernity" can be seriously harmed by the fact that Confucianism itself is the culprit for the "century of humiliation". Among the Chinese intellectuals, the Confucianism needs to reinvent or re-adapt itself to become the working philosophy of the Chinese people. However, I really appreciate the author's attitudes to the rising of Chinese power. And his departure from western universalism is so hard-pressed to find. But he didn't discuss why the western universalism is incompatible with Chinese society. He talked about gravity of Chinese history and indigenous culture which basically pulls back China from embracing the western universalism and seems to overlook the fact that it is too early to tell the rule of Communistic party and the possibility that two civilizations can be abridged. Instead of hybrid of world order, there would be a hybrid of world cultures where Chinese would be enlightened and the west would be more tolerant.
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Brilliant, bloody brilliant. Everything you want to understand about China in the 21st Century.
—thy
Really enjoyed this discussion of Chinese vs. Western culture. Great insights.
—maryjoe9696
The best kind of history book - the one about the future.
—Name
