Martin Jacques - When China Rules the World

Göran Therborn, European Modernity and Beyond: The Trajectory of European Societies, 1945 - 2000 (London: Sage, 1995), offers a powerful argument on the exceptionalism of European modernity. Deepak Lal, Unintended Consequences (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1998), raises interesting questions concerning long-running cultural differences between diverse peoples and civilizations and what lies behind them. There is one outstanding book on the nature of Japanese culture, and that is Ruth Benedict’s The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture (London: Secker and Warburg, 1947), which, though written over sixty years ago, remains a classic on how to analyse cultural difference. Kosaku Yoshino, Cultural Nationalism in Contemporary Japan (London: Routledge, 1992), offers interesting insights into Japanese identity, while Michio Morishima, Why Has Japan ‘Succeeded’: Western Technology and the Japanese Ethos (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), is an excellent general history.

On the nature and extent of East Asia’s Westernization discussed in Chapter 5, I would mention K. C. Chang, Food in Chinese Culture: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977), and especially Nicholas Ostler, Empires of the Word (London: HarperCollins, 2005), which tells the story of world history through languages and makes some illuminating points about Mandarin in this context. Lucian W. Pye, Asian Power and Politics: The Cultural Dimensions of Authority (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1985), provides a perceptive account of the distinctive characteristics of East Asian politics, though it is much stronger on North-East than South-East Asia.

Moving into Part II, many books have been published on China ’s rise but the great majority tend to deal with its economic aspects, with surprisingly few taking a more general approach. One of the most useful of these is James Kynge, China Shakes the World: The Rise of A Hungry Nation (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2006), which is highly readable and has a distinctive take. I would also mention David M. Lampton, The Three Faces of Chinese Power: Might, Money, and Minds (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008). Paul A. Cohen, Discovering History in China: American Historical Writing on the Recent Chinese Past (New York: Columbia University Press, 1984), raises interesting questions about the nature of American writing and interpretation of contemporary China. Although arguably a little dated, Lucian W. Pye, The Spirit of Chinese Politics (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1992), displays a remarkable ability to grasp some of the underlying characteristics of Chinese politics, in a very accessible manner which has few if any peers. On the civilization-state and related matters, I would highly recommend William A. Callahan, Contingent States: Greater China and Transnational Relations (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2004). Callahan is one of the few Western writers who does not view China through a mainly Western prism, but seeks to understand it on its own terms.

The speed of Chinese economic growth means that books inevitably tend to become a little dated rather quickly. Barry Naughton, The Chinese Economy: Transitions and Growth (Cambridge Mass.: MIT Press, 2007), is a comprehensive review of Chinese economic development after 1949 and subsequently during the reform period, while Peter Nolan, Transforming China: Globalisation, Transition and Development (London: Anthem Press, 2005), offers an interesting assessment of the global prospects for Chinese companies. Elizabeth C. Economy, The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to China’s Future (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2004), discusses China’s environmental challenge, which can explored in more topical fashion on www.chinadia- logue.net, a website devoted to China’s environment.

Zheng Yongnian, Will China Become Democratic?: Elite, Class and Regime Transition (Singapore: EAI, 2004), is a very useful assessment of political trends in contemporary China, while Suisheng Zhao, A Nation-State by Construction: Dynamics of Modern Chinese Nationalism (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004), provides an excellent analysis of the development of the Chinese nation-state. Christopher R. Hughes, Chinese Nationalism in the Global Era (London: Routledge, 2006), is one of a number of recent books exploring Chinese nationalism.

As explained in Chapter 8, all too little has been written about race and ethnicity in China, though there is more on the Chinese sense of cultural superiority. In the parched territory of the former, Frank Dikötter, The Discourse of Race in Modern China (London: Hurst and Company, 1992), remains, alas, something of an oasis. I would like to be able to mention books by Chinese writers but there is really only one, the important essay by Chen Kuan-Hsing in his forthcoming book Towards De-Imperialization (Durham, N. C.: Duke University Press). For the time being, a version of this, revised in 2009, can be found at www.interasia. org/khchen/online/Epilogue.pdf. Wang Gungwu, The Chineseness of China: Selected Essays (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), is, as the title suggests, a perceptive and informative study of China ’s distinctiveness.

As for China ’s relationship with East Asia, there remains no better book on the tributary-state system than John King Fairbank, ed., The Chinese World Order: Traditional China’s Foreign Relations (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1968). The best survey of China’s present relations with its neighbours is David Shambaugh, ed., Power Shift: China and Asia’s New Dynamics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005).

On China ’s relationship with the wider world, John W. Garver’s two books — China and Iran: Ancient Partners in a Post-Imperial World (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2006) and Protracted Contest: Sino-Indian Rivalry in the Twentieth Century (Seattle: University of Washington Press: 2001), are models of their kind. There are many books on the Sino-American relationship, with David M. Lampton, Same Bed, Different Dreams: Managing US - China Relations, 1989 - 2000 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001), being the most comprehensive.

On a contemporary note, Mark Leonard, What Does China Think? (London: Fourth Estate, 2008), provides an interesting guide to present thinking across a range of subjects amongst Chinese intellectuals and policy-makers.

Finally, for those of a statistical persuasion, there are two books by that doyen of historical statistics, Angus Maddison, namely Chinese Economic Performance in the Long Run, Second Edition, Revised and Updated: 960 - 2030 AD (Paris: OECD, 2007) and The World Economy (Paris: OECD, 2007). The latter combines two volumes originally published separately: 1: A Millennial Perspective and 2: Historical Statistics .

Acharya, Amitav, ‘Containment, Engagement, or Counter-dominance? Malaysia’s Response to the Rise of China’, in Alastair Iain Johnston and Robert S. Ross, eds, Engaging China: The Management of an Emerging Power (London: Routledge, 1999)

Aikawa, Kayoko, ‘The Story of Kimono’, in Atsushi Ueda, ed., The Electric Geisha: Exploring Japan’s Popular Culture (Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1994)

Akao, Nobutoshi, ‘Re-energizing Japan’s Asean Policy’, AJISS-Commentary , 2 August 2007, posted on www.jiia.or.jp/en/