Evening: Hosted by University of Melbourne / Asialink
Evening: Hosted by Griffith University, Brisbane / Asialink
Evening: Hosted by the University of New South Wales / Asialink
China may have the planet’s second largest economy. But the Chinese are not going to rule the world
There is a lot of money to be made writing books warning that we are all about to succumb to China’s thrall. The best seller in this genre is Martin Jacques’ “When China Rules the World.”
But China is nowhere near to ruling the world, has shown no signs of wanting to rule the world, and would not know what to do with the world if it did rule it (which it never will.) It is a shame that for pointing this out in his new book China Goes Global, David Shambaugh will likely earn only a fraction of Jacques’ royalties.
No schedule was set for territorial dispute talks between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said it was unclear when such a widely anticipated meeting would take place. Last week tension ran high as China entered the airspace and naval zone of disputed islands. The Voice of Russia asked to comment this dispute to Martin Jaques, author of the best-seller “When China Rules the World” and a visiting professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
The Senkaku Islands have been controlled by Japan since 1895, aside from a 1945 to 1972 period of administration by the United States. The People’s Republic of China and Taiwan disputed the US handover of authority back to Japan in 1971. And both countries have defended its claims to the territory since then.
Japan argues that it found the Islands to be the land belonging to no one back in 19th century.
LONDON — I like being in this city because I am able to read articles with different points of view on an issue that matters: China as a rising power in Asia.
China experts who have written books recently are David Shambaugh, “China Goes Global: the Partial Power,” Edward N. Luttwak, The Rise of China vs. the Logic of Strategy, and Timothy Beardson’sStumbling Giant: the Threats to China’s Future.
These books can be said to be a reaction to Martin Jacques, the author of the international bestseller, “When China Rules the World.” Since I am in London, I asked Martin Jacques what he thought of the article that reviewed the three books in Prospect Magazine. I ask him to comment specifically on a question posed by the author, Jonathan Mirsky.
“What should we do about a regime that prides itself on a mythical past on the continuing assumption that all other countries are its cultural inferiors?”
It’s the second day of the annual US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Washington. The meetings are high-level: Secretaries of State and Treasury on the U.S. side, State Councilor and Vice Premier for the Chinese. Economic issues — from trade barriers and investment opportunities, to alleged currency manipulation and cyber-espionage — are on the agenda between the two economic superpowers.
Vice President Joe Biden had this to say at the opening of the talks on Wednesday:
“One of the most important things that we need to continue to establish and deepen between our peoples and between our governments is trust. We don’t have to agree on everything, but we have to trust.”
By Invitation Only
How a China divided between nationalists, communists and warlords made its stand against imperial Japan
China’s War with Japan, 1937-1945: The Struggle for Survival, by Rana Mitter, Allen Lane, RRP£25, 480 pages
The British think of the second world war as starting in 1939, when Germany invaded Poland; in America it begins with the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941; for Russians the war also commences in 1941, with the launch of Operation Barbarossa. For China it started much earlier, in 1931 with the Japanese occupation and subsequent annexation of Manchuria, followed in 1937 by an invasion that led to the conquest of Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and many other cities. Yet in the west the Sino-Japanese war has received scant attention and has at most been viewed as a sideshow to the primary theatre of war in Europe.
6.30 – 8.30: Grand Committee Room, Westminster Hall, House of Commons