When China Rules The World: The Rise of the Middle Kingdom and the End of the Western World [Hardcover]

This book comprises an extended and comprehensive overview of the ascendancy of the modern Chinese state and the impact that ascendancy will have for East Asia in particular, and the rest of the world in general - including the West. The discussion focuses attention on eight central themes. First, China is characteristically a civilisation-state rather than a conventional nation-state as defined by the Westphalian system, although it possesses the characteristics of both. Second, China is most likely to conceive of itself, and be recognised by others, as a tributary-state - particularly in East Asia. It will then probably revert to the kind of relationship, with its East Asian periphery, that obtained prior to the end of the nineteenth century. Third, as the twenty-first century matures we will become more clearly aware of the distinctive Chinese attitude to race and ethnicity, which does not harmonise or fit comfortably with current Western concepts and praxis. Fourth, due to its massive land mass, China operates on a vast continental scale: when that is taken into consideration, together with its equally massive population, this fact alone differentiates China from any other nation-state. Fifth, the nature of the Chinese polity is highly distinctive, because the erstwhile imperial dynasty did not desire and was not obliged or required to share power with any other institutions or interest groups. Sixth, Chinese modernity is characterised by the rapidity of the country's economic transformation, and its recently acquired financial importance now has significant global influence. Seventh, since 1949 China has been ruled by a `communist' regime, which has been influenced by a detectable Confucian syncretism. Eighth, China will for the next several decades, probably until the middle of the twenty-first century, combine the characteristics of both a developed and a developing country.

This book is of essential reading for those who take a keen interest in the progressive and rapid development of the Chinese state and its economy, which already has had far reaching consequences, particularly as it progressively displaces the United States of America a the world's hegemonic power: an event that is likely to occur during this century. I can well remember an `amusing' recommendation made during the early years of the Cold War: "Optimists should learn to speak Russian, while pessimists should learn to speak Chinese." It would now appear that the pessimists would have made the right choice, although there are no obvious signs that the Chinese ascendancy will necessarily have a malign effect on the West, or on those nations which embrace the prevailing Western ideology. Stuart E Hopkins

Martin Jacques was one of the great editors. He guided the affairs of the magazine Marxism Today, despite its outmoded name and having no money, and made it enormously influential. He would get prestigious commentators to write for him for next to nothing, and then argue their copy with them line by line, getting them to justify it to him.

This very long book could have done with his editing skills.

Its basic theme is simple. China is going to replace America as Top Nation sooner than we think, and when it does we will be surprised to discover that economic success does not inevitably make countries behave like Western democracies, that China will continue to behave as it does and as it always has done, and when it is Top Nation we shall all have to adjust our ways accordingly rather than, as until now, vice versa.

He makes this case convincingly. And then he makes it again. And again.

The language is leaden. Abstract nouns once skewered are repeated endlessly, first in their natural state, then as verbs and finally agonisingly as adjectives. Clichés are solemnly trotted out. It's like something written by a politician, or I suppose a Marxist. And he is transfixed by numbers. There are endless specious surveys reporting that a certain very precise percentage of people are very happy, quite happy or rather happy with the some state of affairs or other. Towards the end he assures us in a discussion of the Chinese diaspora that there are 347,000 Chinese people in Britain. Look around. I don't think so.

I read the book because I believe that its theme is true and I am interested in what it will be like when China is Top Nation. This is where the book resorts to windy generality. Here are two examples:

We are continually told that Chinese people uniquely regard themselves as part of a `civilisation state' rather than a nation state. What does that mean? How is that different from (or as Jacques tends to put it `different to') France, for example?

Another recurring idea is that the similarities between imperial China, Maoist China and modern China are greater then the differences because of the persistence of the Confucian tradition. Again, what precisely does this mean? He doesn't tell us. Buy a book about Confucianism, I suppose.

Secretly I wanted to know if we were likely to be allowed cheese when China was Top Nation. Chinese cuisine is one of the glories of the world, but they don't really do cheese. I struggled through to the very end of the book, but I have to report that on this not unimportant point I am none the wiser.

I have been studying, working and living China for 45 years.

This book is head and shoulders above all others in its field for the quality of its content and analysis.

This is a blueprint for the inevitable inescapable changes which are transforming our world right now before our eyes, moment by moment. As I write, today the three top most profitable banks in the world are all Chinese for the first time in history.

A new world order is forming, whether we like it or not, in which China and its developing world partners including Africa, South America and Russia will own the greatest wealth and natural resources, whilst the US and Western Europe become second-tier, exhausted impossibly burdened in debt.

Every school child should read this book because this is their future, this is the handbook and guide to the world they will inhabit for the rest of their lives.

2012 is the year of the Dragon, and China is rising and cannot be stopped. All we can do is adapt.
As New Yorkers are fond of saying: Deal with It.

Read this book and understand the changes before they happen.

To be sure the title is melodramatic but no less true for all that.

For a foretaste of the new world order, read thrillers like: The Serpent's Head - Revenge