When China Rules the World by Martin Jacques - Book Report/Review Example

When China Rules the World by Martin Jacques Book review: “When China rules the world” is written by Martin Jacques. Jacques is a famous columnist and writes for The Guardian of London. He has spent some time living in China and also has written quite a lot about his journeys within the country. Besides, he has read a lot of books and journals about the social and political environment of China. In his book, “When China rules the world”, Jacques has pointed toward a silent reality that has not been talked about much in the past. After conducting a deep study of Chinese culture, trends and traditions and analyzing its involvement in the international economic and political scenario, Jacques has made certain conclusions in which China has been visualized as the rising nation that is likely to dominate the world in near future in a unique way. According to Jacques, China is developing in such a way that it would not only outshine the United States, but also change the world’s standards of progress and concepts of modernity. However, Jacques confirms that his predictions stay valid only if China keeps progressing at the same pace as it does today. In other words, if China manages to maintain its economic growth and political stability, it is likely to gain the status of the super-power of the world. Many philosophers have laid out two main reasons for the popularity of the economic recession the world has recently undergone through mutual consensus. The first reason is that it greatly affected America in a negative way, and the second reason is that it did very less harm to China. China has planned its progress in such a strategic way that is getting its economy stronger and if it remains so, it would not take China long to stand among the biggest economic powers. China’s economic progress has influenced the world in a number of ways that include but are not limited to an increase in the worth of the dollar. Many renowned journals, books and media have portrayed the economic stability of China as the fundamental reason of its progress. It is frequently recognized in the press and the media as a developing country that is the main exporter of products to all of the economically rich nations of the West and permits the growth of a Western style of economy in the market. Jacques has acknowledged the central role of China in the success of the Western economy but has argued that the West tends to develop a relaxed attitude by considering only the economic aspect of the matter. In his book, Jacques has mentioned that the West does not visualize a significant change in the social, political and economic structure of the world with the rise of China. He notes, “The mainstream Western attitude has held that, in its fundamentals, the world will be relatively little changed by China’s rise”. (Jacques cited in Kahn, 2009). Contrary to the attitude of the West, Jacques is of the view that the progress of China would bring a considerable change in the whole world. Jacques has realized that China is emerging in a way that is quite different from the way in which countries like Germany, England and America have risen in the past two centuries. Jacques notes that unlike these nations, China does not come up as a new nation on the map of the world. Instead, China tends to regain its old international status and dominancy that it had once lost in the last two centuries as a result of the technological advancement in the West. China has remained as the most advanced nation for quite a long while until the 18th century. However, it could not manage to survive the pressure of the technological boom that was experienced by the Europe as a result of the industrial revolution. Since then, China’s culture and its social and political structure has been criticized a number of times by many philosophers who considered it weak as compared to the culture of the West. However, China has proved the critiques wrong by showing rapid growth not only in terms of science and technology, but also in terms of economic growth and political stability, specially when it managed to be unaffected by the financial crisis that has largely affected the whole world recently. Jacques has visited China a lot of times and noticed that various high rise buildings of Western style are being constructed in China. Although China has noticeably advanced in all major fields, yet its cultural mood, its social and cultural norms and the concepts of modernity differ considerably from those of the other advanced nations of the West. China tends to maintain the old Chinese culture while rising in economic strength at the same time. China has focused on gaining economic strength without compromising on its standards and values. In this way, China has not only maintained its originality and integrity, but also set an impression upon the world that it takes pride in its own culture. Such an attitude is typical of developed nations. China aims at introducing itself the world as a nation that is unlike West in many ways and still enjoys the heights of success and prosperity. This is what makes China unique in its approach because it does not favor the ideology that associates prosperity with the standards of Western modernity. Jacques argues that the world has started to accept the Chinese culture as such. This is evident from the fact that Chinese food is one of the most liked foods all over the world. But Jacques realizes that such aspects are only a minor consideration in the overall success of a culture. To gain real appreciation, the culture of a nation needs to be rich and strong enough to outshine other cultures and according to Jacques, China is doing all to achieve that. Language is one of the most fundamental standards which stand as a measure of a nation’s progress. These days, English is known as an International language all over the world. Having realized the importance of English, a large number of Chinese people have learnt to speak English in order to remove any linguistic barriers that might come in their way in their course of competing with the world. But given the large emphasis Chinese place on Mandarin, it is not quite impossible for Mandarin to gain the status of English language in near future. Jacques makes his argument on the basis of the fact that Mandarin, in the world of today, stands as the national language for as many as 1 in every 5 persons. Not only this, Asian people largely prefer to speak Mandarin as their second language. Also, Chinese people prefer to use internet in their own language. One of the many reasons of China’s success is its inherent adaptability and flexibility that is a significant characteristic feature of Chinese ideology. China has made its way in the international market by adopting a unique approach of entertaining customers of all classes and economic status. It produces products of diverse nature and quality. Understanding the variation in the economic strength of countries all over the world, China aims at gaining the status of chief supplier of goods to all countries by producing goods whose quality ranges from supreme class to very low class. Accordingly, there is a huge variation in the cost of these goods so that buyers from all economic backgrounds may find their share in the goods exported by China. Besides, China maintains a good speed in the process of manufacturing of the goods that it exports. China has achieved this status through adopting a planned strategy. It basically analyzes the 1st class products and copies the original idea to make similar products that are quite cheaper than the original products while being equally durable and high in quality. Jacques notices that China has managed to copy the original products quite successfully and many other countries have failed to do the same even if they imported the labor from China. Thus, it is plainly a success of Chinese methodology. Chinese people give a lot of respect and importance to their government and the government holds complete right to interfere in their business. The public and private sector are not quite separate from each other and merge into each other in many ways that is quite unlike the trends that prevail in the Western countries. In the most advanced countries like United States, the public and private sectors hold their own rights and responsibilities and the government does not interfere much into the business in the private sector. This has resulted into the development of a Communist approach among the Chinese rulers who visualize this approach as a cause and symbol of unity and discipline among the people of China. And above all, the concept is not only accepted but also appreciated by the local people who consider the development of unity as their sacred mission. Jacques has argued that the confidence of Chinese people in their government is quite favorable for the economic progress of China. Moreover, China has not only implemented true democracy within China, but has also served in its development among different countries in the world. In his attempt to justify his point of view, Jacques seems to have exaggerated the positive aspects of China’s political and international affairs to some extent. It seems as if the writer has overlooked the various potential areas China still lags behind in. The writer has not paid much attention to the standard of living of the Chinese people, which lags far behind the one enjoyed by the Western people. Important issues like environmental pollution have not been discussed while drawing an analysis of the political and technological aspects of China. Although a vast majority of the Western countries import goods of everyday use from China, but they have done considerable efforts in controlling various other environmental hazards that China has still not managed to. The arguments Jacques has made in this book are largely based on the concepts he built through reading books. However, China, in reality is much disorganized than the way it is portrayed in the books. Notwithstanding the actual situation, Jacques realization of the huge impact that China is likely to make on the political environment of the world in near future can not be considered fake provided that China continues to grow in economic strength and maintains its political stability. China certainly has the potential to bring a revolution. References: Kahn, J. “Waking Dragon”. The New York Times. 31 Dec. 2009. Web. 14 May 2010. Read More