New Delhi: Martin Jacques is the author of the global best-seller When China Rules the World: The End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order, first published in 2009. In India to promote the second edition of the book, Jacques spoke in an interview about how China’s growth story owes its success to its oft-questioned form of government, the “Chinisation” of the world as it develops further and relations with India.
The first edition of your book came out in 2009. What are the changes you’ve noticed in China since 2009? And could you also explain the title that you have chosen?
China has carried on growing quite quickly, I’d imagine about 9% a year since then. It looks more prosperous, feels more prosperous, the economy has grown by 40% and, of course, internationally due to the Western crisis it’s been catapulted into greater prominence. While the Western economies have been stationary, China is in many ways shaping the global economy more than the US through trade because there is a huge footprint through trade; you know many countries around the world count China among their biggest trading partner—in Africa, in Latin America, in Chile, in Brazil, Egypt, South Africa, India.