Europe needs to think afresh about China ties amid US shock

27/02/2025, Global Times

The Donald Trump administration’s most dramatic act so far has been to upend US relationship with Europe. The alliance between the US and Europe has been the centerpiece of American foreign policy since 1945, crystallized in the establishment of NATO in 1949, which committed its members, most crucially the US, to defend any member attacked by another country.

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EU’s attitude toward China needs a paradigm shift

08/01/2025, Global Times

The incoming Donald Trump administration will not be a rerun of his first presidency. The incoming administration in the US will possibly mean: the end of post-1945 American multilateralism; a growing gulf between Europe and the US; the end of the Ukraine war; a trade war with China (but not a hot one) which will fail in its objectives; and major pressure on all US allies (European and East Asian) to pay for part of their defense. It will mark a paradigm shift on a far bigger scale and of far greater consequence than previous such shifts like the Thatcher neo-liberal revolution in the 1980s. It will mark a major shift to the right in US politics, a large-scale retreat from America’s global role, and a return to America as the overwhelming priority.

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US’ blind obsession turns security into its opposite

10/10/2024, Global Times

The most obvious expression of the new security situation is the fact that two major wars are presently being fought: the Russian action against Ukraine, which began two and a half years ago; and Israel’s assault on Gaza, which started one year ago, both of which have resulted in a major loss of life. The US and the EU have played a crucial role in supplying arms to Ukraine, thereby greatly widening the latter’s reach and military capability. Israel’s war on Gaza has long been threatening to become a regional war. Finally, in neither case can we yet see the possible end of the war.

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China is creating a new form of modernity

27/08/2024, Global Times

Modernization has become one of the great subjects of discussion in China. Ever since the century of humiliation, the quest for modernization had eluded China. By the time of the revolution in 1949, China lagged hugely behind the West. The need to modernize was China’s greatest challenge. In the late 1970s, Deng Xiaoping learned from the Asian tigers and the West. His answer was to open up to the rest of the world, most notably the West.

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China’s outward mentality, commitments remain robust

15/07/2024, Global Times

In 1978, China made the decision to open up and turn outward. This has been fundamental to China’s extraordinary economic transformation over the last four decades and more. The turn outward, we should remind ourselves, represented a rejection of the “socialism in one country” thinking that had shaped Chinese policy after the 1949 revolution. The new approach was hugely consequential. China came to see itself as an integral part of the global economy, rather than, as before, a part of the socialist bloc, or, more narrowly even, pretty much on its own. China’s new approach was to measure itself against the world, and, more crucially, the advanced economies of the US, Europe, and Japan.

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Civilization state versus nation-state

This article was the most read article in April 2020. The original copy was published on the 15th January, 2011. The embedded video is extracted from an interview with Fu Xiaotian on Talk with World Leaders (Phoenix TV) on the 18th June, 2020

China confronts Europe with an enormous problem: we do not understand it

China confronts Europe with an enormous problem: we do not understand it. Worse, we are not even conscious of the fact. We insist on seeing the world through our Western prism. No other tradition or history or culture can compare. Ours is superior to all and others, in deviating from ours, are diminished as a consequence. This speaks not of our wisdom but our ignorance, an expression not of our cosmopolitanism but our insularity and provincialism. It is a consequence of being in the ascendant for at least two centuries, if not rather longer. Eurocentrism – or perhaps we should say western-centrism – has become our universal yardstick against which, in varying degrees, all others fail. (more…)

Hong Kong: The crisis that needs an end

23/12/19, CGTN

Martin Jacques speaks forthrightly on the crisis in Hong Kong and what needs to be done.

Produced by T-House for CGTN.

China, The Philippines and a New World Order

Martin Jacques delivered the Keynote Speech, titled ‘China, The Philippines and a New World Order’, at a special conference organised by the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines to a specially invited audience of leading government, media, business figures, and ambassadors, in Manila on 10 September 2019.

Watch the interview below:

Beginnings of a New World Order: The Rise of China

Martin Jacques delivered the Keynote Speech, titled ‘Beginnings of a New World Order: The Rise of China’, at This is Tomorrow, a Symposium organised by the University of Bath Institute for Policy Research (IPR).

The session was chaired by Professor Nick Pearce, and held 12 September 2019 at Arts Lecture Theatre, The Edge, University of Bath.

Video copyright held by the University of Bath.

Duterte’s ‘pivot to China’

Martin Jacques joins Karen Davila on ANC Headstart to talk about the ongoing US-China trade war, China’s handling of the situation in Hong Kong and why he thinks President Duterte’s pivot to China is the right decision.

Watch the interview below:

Chinese governance highly distinctive, remarkably effective

Martin Jacques discusses Chinese governance with People’s Daily Online on 5 July 2019.

Watch the interview below:

Why is the US moving toward a new Cold War against China?

Martin Jacques discusses the West’s fear of China’s progress, its transformed position on the world stage, and what kind of great power it will become. One-to-one interview with Liu Xin on The Point (CGTN) on 22 May 2019.

Watch the interview below:

TED Talk: Understanding the Rise of China

This hugely successful TED talk in London has now had over 4 million views. Martin Jacques asks: How do we in the West make sense of China and its phenomenal rise?

Can the West’s democracy survive China’s rise to dominance?

The following article by Martin Jacques was a contribution to the debate on the Economist website on the theme ‘Should the West worry about the threat to liberal values posed by China’s rise?’

For long the West has thought that history is on its side, that the global future would and should be in its own image. With the end of the cold war and the implosion of the Soviet Union, this conviction became stronger than ever. The future was Western; nothing else was imaginable. Of course, already, well before the end of the cold war, in 1978 to be exact, China had started its epic modernisation such that, in the annals of history, 1978 will surely prove to be a far more significant year than 1989. During China’s rise, hubris continued to shape the West’s perception and understanding of China. As the latter modernised it would become increasingly Western, it was supposed: Deng’s reforms marked the beginning of the privatisation and marketisation of the Chinese economy—its political system would in time become Western, otherwise China would inevitably fail.

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Let’s celebrate reform’s 40th anniversary

The following article by Martin Jacques appeared in China Daily, 20th January 2018.

As momentous historic events go, China’s reform period was relatively unheralded. Little did anyone realise at the time – probably no one, in fact – that 1978 would enter the history books as one of the most important years in modern history.

We should not be surprised. At the time, the Chinese economy was a mere one-twentieth of the size of the US economy, with a per capita GDP roughly on a par with that of Zambia, lower than half of the Asian average and lower than two-thirds of the African average. China’s impact on the world was very limited, even in East Asia. (more…)

‘The man of the moment in China’

(Double click on video for full screen)

Martin Jacques on China: 8 part video series

Part 1: How does China’s global outlook differ from the West’s?

‘The idea of a common future, or a sense of shared destiny, has become a very powerful theme of Chinese foreign policy’

In Part 1 of Martin Jacques on China (presented by CGTN), Martin Jacques explains China’s growing influence on the world stage, and considers why its global outlook is so different to that of Western countries. (more…)

Prescient author now rules the roost

17/11/17, China Daily, all editions worldwide
1/12/17, Daily Telegraph

Martin Jacques, the journalist and academic, is now seen by many as the man of the moment in China.

Click here to access PDF of the full article, published in China Daily on 17th November 2017. The article was written by Andrew Moody.

One to One Interview with Martin Jacques

On October 19^th, Martin Jacques did this one-to-one interview on China in Washington DC with Anand Naidoo, the host of The Heat, CGTN America’s flagship current affairs programme.

Part One:

Part Two:

Profile on CCTV

This short profile was broadcast on CCTV News and other CCTV channels in May 2016.