Synopses & Reviews
How China's ascendance as an economic superpower will alter the cultural, political, social, and ethnic balance of global power in the twenty-first century, unseating the West and in the process creating a whole new world
According to even the most conservative estimates, China will overtake the United States as the world's largest economy by 2027 and will ascend to the position of world economic leader by 2050. But the full repercussions of China's ascendancy — for itself and the rest of the globe-have been surprisingly little explained or understood. In this far-reaching and original investigation, Martin Jacques offers provocative answers to some of the most pressing questions about China's growing place on the world stage.
Martin Jacques reveals, by elaborating on three historical truths, how China will seek to shape the world in its own image. The Chinese have a rich and long history as a civilization-state. Under the tributary system, outlying states paid tribute to the Middle Kingdom. Ninety-four percent of the population still believes they are one race-Han Chinese. The strong sense of superiority rooted in China's history promises to resurface in twenty-first century China and in the process strengthen and further unify the country.
A culturally self-confident Asian giant with a billion-plus population, China will likely resist globalization as we know it. This exceptionalism will have powerful ramifications for the rest of the world and the United States in particular. As China is already emerging as the new center of the East Asian economy, the mantle of economic and, therefore, cultural relevance will in our lifetimes begin to pass from Manhattan and Paris to cities like Beijing and Shanghai. It is the American relationship with and attitude toward China, Jacques argues, that will determine whether the twenty-first century will be relatively peaceful or fraught with tension, instability, and danger.
When China Rules the World is the first book to fully conceive of and explain the upheaval that China's ascendance will cause and the realigned global power structure it will create.
Review
"Provocative...a fascinating account." Michiko Kakutani, the New York Times
Review
"A very forcefully written, lively book that is full of provocations and predictions." Fareed Zakaria, GPS, CNN
Review
"The West hopes that wealth, globalization and political integration will turn China into a gentle giant....But Jacques says that this is a delusion. Time will not make China more Western; it will make the West, and the world, more Chinese." The Economist
Review
"[An] exhaustive, incisive exploration of possibilities that many people have barely begun to contemplate about a future dominated by China....[Jacques] has written a work of considerable erudition, with provocative and often counterintuitive speculations about one of the most important questions facing the world today. And he could hardly have known, when he set out to write it, that events would so accelerate the trends he was analyzing." The New York Times Book Review
Review
"The rise of China may well prove to be the defining economic and geopolitical change of our time, and few authors have given the subject deeper thought, nor offered a more illuminating analysis, than Martin Jacques." Niall Ferguson, author of The Ascent of Money
Review
"[A] compelling and thought-provoking analysis of global trends....Jacques is a superb explainer of history and economics, tracing broad trends with insight and skill." The Washington Post
Review
"This important book, deeply considered, full of historical understanding and realism, is about more than China. It is about a twenty-first-century world no longer modeled on and shaped by North Atlantic power, ideas and assumptions. I suspect it will be highly influential." Eric Hobsbawm, author of The Age of Extremes
Review
"This an extremely impressive book, full of bold but credible predictions...[this] book will long be remembered for its foresight and insight." The Guardian (UK)
Review
"Provocative...a fascinating account."—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
Review
“A very forcefully written, lively book that is full of provocations and predictions.”—Fareed Zakaria,
GPS, CNNReview
“The West hopes that wealth, globalization and political integration will turn China into a gentle giant… But Jacques says that this is a delusion. Time will not make China more Western; it will make the West, and the world, more Chinese.”—The Economist
Review
“[An] exhaustive, incisive exploration of possibilities that many people have barely begun to contemplate about a future dominated by China. ... [Jacques] has written a work of considerable erudition, with provocative and often counterintuitive speculations about one of the most important questions facing the world today. And he could hardly have known, when he set out to write it, that events would so accelerate the trends he was analyzing.”—
The New York Times Book ReviewReview
“The rise of China may well prove to be the defining economic and geopolitical change of our time, and few authors have given the subject deeper thought, nor offered a more illuminating analysis, than Martin Jacques.”—Niall Ferguson, author of
The Ascent of MoneyReview
“[A] compelling and thought-provoking analysis of global trends.... Jacques is a superb explainer of history and economics, tracing broad trends with insight and skill.”—
The Washington PostReview
“This important book, deeply considered, full of historical understanding and realism, is about more than China. It is about a twenty-first-century world no longer modelled on and shaped by North Atlantic power, ideas and assumptions. I suspect it will be highly influential.”—Eric Hobsbawm, author of
The Age of ExtremesReview
“This an extremely impressive book, full of bold but credible predictions … [this] book will long be remembered for its foresight and insight.”—
The Guardian (UK)
Synopsis
According to even the most conservative estimates, China will ascend to the position of world economic leader by 2050. In this far-reaching investigation, Jacques offers provocative answers to some of the most pressing questions about China's growing place on the world stage.
Synopsis
In this prodigiously researched book, Martin Jacques presents a groundbreaking look at how China's continued economic ascendency will alter the balance of global power. Drawing extensively on Chinese history, he reveals how an increasingly powerful China will seek to shape the world in its own image: the old tributary system will resurface in a modern form, contemporary ideas of racial hierarchy will be redrawn, and China's age-old sense of superiority will reassert itself. In a new afterword, Jacques argues that, following the Western financial crisis, we have entered a new era that is being shaped by China.
Synopsis
Greatly revised and expanded, with a new afterword, this update to Martin Jacques's global bestseller is an essential guide to understanding a world increasingly shaped by Chinese power
Soon, China will rule the world. But in doing so, it will not become more Western.
Since the first publication of When China Rules the World, the landscape of world power has shifted dramatically. In the three years since the first edition was published, When China Rules the World has proved to be a remarkably prescient book, transforming the nature of the debate on China.
Now, in this greatly expanded and fully updated edition, boasting nearly 300 pages of new material, and backed up by the latest statistical data, Martin Jacques renews his assault on conventional thinking about China's ascendancy, showing how its impact will be as much political and cultural as economic, changing the world as we know it.
First published in 2009 to widespread critical acclaim — and controversy — When China Rules the World: The End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order has sold a quarter of a million copies, been translated into eleven languages, nominated for two major literary awards, and is the subject of an immensely popular TED talk.
Synopsis
Greatly revised and expanded, with a new afterword, this update to Martin Jacques’s global bestseller is an essential guide to understanding a world increasingly shaped by Chinese power
Soon, China will rule the world. But in doing so, it will not become more Western.
Since the first publication of When China Rules the World, the landscape of world power has shifted dramatically. In the three years since the first edition was published, When China Rules the World has proved to be a remarkably prescient book, transforming the nature of the debate on China.
Now, in this greatly expanded and fully updated edition, boasting nearly 300 pages of new material, and backed up by the latest statistical data, Martin Jacques renews his assault on conventional thinking about China’s ascendancy, showing how its impact will be as much political and cultural as economic, changing the world as we know it.
First published in 2009 to widespread critical acclaim - and controversy - When China Rules the World: The End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order has sold a quarter of a million copies, been translated into eleven languages, nominated for two major literary awards, and is the subject of an immensely popular TED talk.
About the Author
Martin Jacques co-edited and co-authored The Forward March of Labour Halted?, The Politics of Thatcherism, and New Times. Jacques co-founded the UK think-tank Demos, has been a columnist for the Times of London, and was editor of Marxism Today and deputy editor of the Independent. He currently writes a regular column for the Guardian and is a visiting research fellow at the London School of Economics Asia Research Centre.