This is the script of the Point of View talk first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on October 26th, 2012, also available on the BBC News Magazine. Missed the programme? Download it as a podcast or listen again on BBC iPlayer.
China and the United States are about to choose new leaders via very different methods. But is a candidate voted for by millions a more legitimate choice than one annointed by a select few, asks Martin Jacques.
This week will witness an extraordinary juxtaposition of events. On Tuesday the next American president will be elected. Two days later, the 18th congress of the Chinese Communist Party will select the new Chinese president and prime minister.
The contrast could hardly be greater.
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China is on the rise, or better, China is regaining its true historical position. This is one of the great events of this century; the unstoppable march of history. This being clear, the only questions now to be asked are the following: Will China be the dominant power, one of several powers in multipolar world, or a part of a bipolar power grouping along with the US? What will the political, ideological and economic consequences be of the presence of the strong China in the world? And finally, how should the process be handled? These and similar questions form the main substance of two recent books, Henry Kissinger’s “On China” and Martin Jacques’ “When China Rules the World.” Both authors have much to say on the topic simply by virtue of being who they are. Kissinger needs no introduction, as a diplomatic veteran of Sino-American relations. Meanwhile Jacques is an academic and journalist; a former editor of Marxism Today who for many years lived and worked in Asia.
It is impossible to do justice to and analyze in depth both these lengthy books, each of well over 500 pages, within the limited space provided here. Three main topics common to both books therefore form the focus of this review: differences in strategic thinking between China and the West; cultural differences; and predictions and proposals posed the by authors on the future of China’s position in the world and relations with the West.
Both Jacques’s and Kissinger’s books are excellent in their own way, and even readers without much prior knowledge of China will have no problem following them. Missing points are there, but when dealing with a country of such size and history, obviously many things will have to pass unmentioned. A reader might wonder why, for example, Kissinger says little about Chinese sovereign wealth fund investments in the US or cyber security, and why Jacques seems to be almost inviting and applauding the demise of the West and the rise of multiple modernities. Further, the reader reading both books consecutively will not be able to sideline a not-so-explicit message: At times it seems that neither Jacques nor Kissinger are totally certain, if it is indeed possible to be so, of the internal cohesion and the stability of China. How will, for example, China deal with Muslim-populated Xinjiang province? And what about social cohesion in the event class differences and differences between the urban and rural populations in Chinese society turn out to be too big a problem to deal with? These and other questions will have to answered by other books, but these volumes from Jacques and Kissinger are excellent places to start inquiring about the great country and a society that is China.
CapitaLand International Forum 2012 - 'The Rise of China: A Paradigm Shift'
Raffles City Convention Centre, Singapore
By invitation only
China is unique among the world’s most populous nations in that it considers itself ethnically near-homogenous, Martin Jacques writes in an essay at the BBC News Magazine. “[M]ore than nine out of 10 Chinese people think of themselves as belonging to just one race, the Han,” he says. But it wasn’t always so. As Jacques explains, the history of ethnicity in China is far more complicated than this suggests, with lessons for both how that makes China unique and what it means for the country today.
The history of China, he suggests, is in some ways a story about ethnicity.
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When China Rules The World: The End Of The Western World And The Birth Of A New Global Order
Author: Martin Jacques
Publisher: Penguin, 848 pages
SKEWED as they may be, reactionary Orientalist perspectives of East Asian realities remain the norm in Western punditry and news reports. The problem has become prevalent in both conservative and liberal circles.
The problem for the West itself is that such a persistent misperception of modern China may undermine Western interests further. Martin Jacques’ When China Rules The World: The End Of The Western World And The Birth Of A New Global Order is intended largely as a corrective, looking at the historic phenomenon of China’s grand return to the global stage in China’s own terms.
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An author shares his views on the growing clout of the world’s second largest economy.
AUTHOR and academic Dr Martin Jacques released an updated and expanded second edition of his widely acclaimed book, When China Rules The World: The End Of The Western World And The Birth Of A New Global Order, earlier this year.
During a recent visit to Kuala Lumpur when he attended an Asian Centre for Media Studies event, Jacques spoke to The Star about his book and its approach to the subject. Some excerpts:
How is the second edition different from the first?
Time. Because China is growing so quickly, China time is fast. There’s been a lot of updating throughout the second edition.
When I wrote the first edition, the 2008 (US-centred) financial crisis had just happened. The last chapter is about the crisis, which was little commented on before.
The second edition looks at the beginnings of a Chinese economic world order.
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This is the script of the Point of View talk first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on October 26th, 2012, also available on the BBC News Magazine. Missed the programme? Download it as a podcast or listen again on BBC iPlayer
I was on a taxi journey in Shanghai with a very intelligent young Chinese student, who was helping me with interviews and interpreting. She was shortly to study for her doctorate at a top American university. She casually mentioned that some Chinese students who went to the US ended up marrying Americans.
I told her that I had recently seen such a mixed couple in Hong Kong, a Chinese woman with a black American. This was clearly not what she had in mind. Her reaction was a look of revulsion. I was shocked. Why did she react that way to someone black, but not someone white? This was over a decade ago, but I doubt much has changed. What does her response tell us – if anything – about Chinese attitudes towards ethnicity?
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6.45 – 8.30pm: Emmanuel Centre, 9-23 Marsham Street
Speakers for the motion: Martin Jacques, Zhang Weiwei
Speakers against the motion: Anson Chan, Jonathan Mirsky
For more information, or to book tickets, click here
2.00 – 3.00pm: Lecture by Martin Jacques, Learning to Live in a China-Centric World
3.00 – 4.00pm: Forum with Ernst Hirsch Ballin, Paul Scheffer, Martin Jacques and Odile Heynders
– DZ2, Dante Building, Tilburg University
