When China Rules the World - Book Report/Review Example

‘When China rules the world’ ‘When China rules the world’ is one the most prominent publication success stories of Martin Jacques as a renowned author, columnist and a scholar of British origin. The book is purported to have sold more than a hundred thousand copies globally after being genuinely translated into six languages. The book has a number of editions but the 1st edition got published in early 2009. As the title suggests the book is about the rise of China as a global economic giant from the East bloc in relation to Asian modernity. Jacques gives an insight of how the Chinese have embraced their geopolitical and economic knowhow to their advantage to rise to a super power status and gain global dominance that is perceived to be based to a different transition model from the west. It appears that china is going to set the trend of the new world order in the near future by introducing a new culture and political platform (Jacques 80). This evolution may be blamed on the current economic financial crisis suffered by the United States hence giving China the go ahead to bridge the gap and emerge as financial power house but again that’s just a mere speculation. The truth of the matter is that China is on the road to global dominance as an economic superpower according to Jacques. The book raises pertinent rhetoric questions that seem to have same “invisible” answer, China! China is portrayed to become the largest economy in the near future or near forthcoming decades that would displace this privilege that west currently enjoys. To best shade light on this concept the author takes us back to history during the reign of Xuanzong in the tang and song period- 617-1280 characterized by economic prosperity, technological growth, urban growth, foreign trade ties and military capability(Jacques 712). This was considered the most prosperous era in Chinese history based on rich cultural pluralism unification and infusion of useful pro-science knowledge among the societal business networks, elite and intellectuals. This led to unity and a state of balance between the Tang and Song due to the collapse of the respective culture pluralism replacing with same science knowhow and other forms of knowledge. China thus ushered rapid growth and development into a steady phase whereby its economic blue print was characterized by land inputs and labour rather than science and technology as employed by Europe in its development strategies. This gave china a strong foundation to specialize its workforce according to their specialized task and abilities execution fixing them in the industries best suited for this particular expertise rather than focus on a general science and technology theme to develop workforce like the west. Currently as diversification measure China is empowering its workforce with the west science and technology concept to improve the quality of their economic output putting on a straight path to economic success to reclaim its “lost international status” it once enjoyed in the early 18nth century (Jacques 620). The author argues that China had the most advanced level of civilization with immense wealth, a unified culture and technological advanced know how in the past 200 years. This put China early economy on top of the western civilizations like Europe as a whole. A shift occurred to this order though when the west started to experience industrial revolution due to inception of science and technology platform to revolutionize industrial growth and development. This sequentially gave the west dominance forcing China off the world map. Scholars viewed the reason for this was that china was a bit adamant in its political structure and crippling social setting that did not favor technological and economic advancement to compete with the west. This has been however been proved wrong by the recent Chinas progress that has seen top economic performance as attested by international economic surveys (Jacques 213). An interesting fact to note is that China still subscribes to its traditional cultural values approach as opposed to the west modernization and cultural influences that other rapidly developing nations like South Africa have adopted. Joseph Khan in his essay “walking dragon” attested that “It is accumulating wealth much faster than it is absorbing foreign ideas”. It is becoming a global force to reckon with being mold by its own cultural values empowerment. Unique cultural values, profound political platform and different ideology approach are characteristics that are attached to the to-be global giant modernity trait. The Chinese refer to their unique culture as being superior to others, a trait of a world conqueror. For instance Chinese food and menu in virtually all globally recognized restaurants can attest their popularity globally already in the food and beverage industry. The number of Chinese in diaspora is equally large that is either getting advanced education in best universities in the west or building infrastructure of their own design in developing nations like in African states (Jacques 526). China has developed strong political ties with both developed nations and developing nations as well. This is evident with the massive loan figures it has given America to boost the American economy during the financial crisis that has ravaged the current political giant. African governments can prove Chinese involvement in issuance of developmental grants and donations formally tied to the western colonial ties. Innovation and education has attained unimaginable levels of achievements in the China. The government has poured in immense resources and funds to motivate growth in this particular sector especially to capture the human capital that is rapidly accumulating with high trained high tech skills. This human capital that constitutes to the workforce has created an economy that is flexible and speedy (Jacques 300). Its industrial platform has been perceived to be fast in creating, buying, copying, modifying or even stealing ideas making it difficult for many multinational companies to cope. The Chinese public sector and private sectors fuse together so perfectly a fact that has baffled many American and European economic analysts. This is because a superpower like America has an economic structure that separates business and government to avoid selfish government interference with business that drives the economy. In china many successful business have thrived with minimal interference from the government that has the mandate and right to have a say in business matters. The political landscape has enjoyed stability and peace. Jacques regards this to the communist party that has adopted modern form of imperialism based on its traditions (Jacques 450). The communist leaders are symbols of Chinese unity and the nation’s traditional channel hence the Chinese nationals would rather back this governing ideology as long as the state becomes stronger by the minute. Jacques publication can be viewed from a book perspective as a thesis of speculation but China is very aggressive in becoming a global economic force. This has been felt across the globe. Jacques can be trusted because He has spent part of his life in China observing this aggressive think tank in its daily functioning endeavors that entails bubbly economy, big traffic snarl-ups, political struggles, pollution as a result of industrialization, violent uprising as a part of economic rising trend that would self-correct itself in the process of achieving harmony and success. This is a very interesting world topic seeing it from a developing nation’s point of view of how possible it is to claim or reclaim glory in the world economic, social and political dominance arena while upholding traditional values as opposed to influence from the developed nations. China should be observed keenly and with admiration so as not to be surprised in the near future when the imaginable happens. Works Cited Jacques, Martin. When China Rules the World: The End of the. London and New york: Penguin Books, 2012. Read More