Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.com

When China Rules the World
By Martin Jacques

Narrated by Scott Peterson

Jacques has written an interesting book about China’s rise as a world economic power.  His overview of the geo-political and Realpolitik relationships of the east and west are enlightening.

“When China Rules the World” has details that inform but do not convince one that China will rule the world.  The provocative title drives the bus but it does not reach its destination.  World control is a myth that causes war and destroys “the best and brightest” of cultures that believe in it.  Never the less, what is happening in China is remarkable. China’s transition from Maoist communism to capitalist communism is like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly; i.e. China has wings but it still lives in a world constrained by its environment.

Jacques argues that a 90% Han Chinese cultural domination of 1/5^th of the world’s population will change the nature of the 21^st century.  In a limited sense, that is undoubtedly true.  However, money, power, and prestige have been the primary motivators of mankind since the beginning of civilization; i.e. whether one is a Han Chinese, a Tibetan, a Uyghur, an Anglo-American, American Indian, Hispanic American, or Black American, a dominant cultures’ drive for money, power, and prestige have been the speedometer, brakes, and steering wheels of nation-states.

There are dominant factions in every culture that are not necessarily the majority of that culture’s population.  Jacques’ early comments suggest China’s 5000 year history reflects a cultural conformity greater than any other country in history while later he acknowledges that the predominant Han population is highly diverse in its beliefs.  Cultural conformity is not the relevant issue; i.e., dominant cultural factions, whether a majority or minority of an indigenous population, are the game changers of a nation’s history.

Jacques argues that China’s cultural history of respect for and veneration of familial obligation will have profound affects on the future of world economies.  The history of modernization suggests that the fabric of extended filial obligation will be ripped apart in China just as it has in every industrializing nation.  Human nature is immutable.  As an agrarian culture moves to the city and parents are compelled to work for wages, family structure and filial commitment deteriorates.

Of course, capitalism is not the same in China as it is in the western hemisphere.  As Jacques reports, major capitalist businesses are state owned in China.  They compete in the world market but government support mitigates much of the free enterprise ideal of capitalist economies.  However, no nation-state has operated as a free enterprise capitalist country; i.e. government has always played a role in capitalist nations.  Government subsidy of industrialization is a matter of degree.   It may be that China will change the way industrialized countries compete but global economic domination is no longer possible in a tech savvy world that recognizes knowledge is power and natural resources are limited.

Long term, China is facing a tougher road to modernization because of the size of its population, environmental degradation, and dwindling natural resources but its short term prospects look better than most other nations.  As Jacques points out, China’s savings rate is over 20%, with a GDP growth rate 3 times that of the United States.  The cost of dwindling natural resources is more affordable to China than any other modernizing country.  However, nation state economies are closely tied to each other and a major failure in the eastern or western hemisphere will have great consequence for the world economy which will significantly affect China’s short term advantage.  With a failure of a any significant nation state economy, China’s drive toward modernization will be in danger.

Jacques’ book is worth its purchase price and a consumer’s time because he exposes some of the cultural biases of China that are not widely known.  His suggestion that discrimination is as prevalent in China as it is in the United States is reprehensible and disgustingly familiar.  Globalization is real.  Human nature is immutable.  All mankind travels on the same space ship, earth.  At the very least, China is proving that our environment is fragile and natural resources are finite.  [contact-form-7 404 "Not Found"]