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When China Rules the World: The End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order by Martin Jacques The Penguin Press, 2009 ISBN 1594201854, 978-1594201851 Hardcover, 576 pages
"When China Rules the World: The End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order" is the provocative the title of Martin Jacques' assessment of China's future role as the dominant global power. For more than a decade Jacques was editor of "Marxism Today" - having first transformed it from an obscure ideological organ of the Marxist Left into a broad platform for wide ranging political and social debate. Not long after the collapse of the Soviet Union "Marxism Today" was also wound up and Jacques went on to become deputy editor of The Independent, an engaging newspaper columnist and author.
Having heard him speak recently about his book on China my main reservation is that he is still overly influenced by his political antecedents, and perhaps too willing to overlook the nature of the Chinese political system as he rightly dwells on China's extraordinary growth, economic capacity, and cultural richness.
The title of the book is itself a giveaway.
Mercifully, no nation has ever ruled the world and however much national fortunes may change no free people would accept the idea of one nation determining our destiny. It's neither desirable nor historically probable.
In 1963 the great Welsh tenor, Sir Harry Secombe, recorded a song entitled "If I ruled the world". It contained the memorable lines that if he ever found himself in that position "every man would be as free as a bird" and "every voice would be a voice to be heard. " Would this be China's song for its own citizens or the rest of us?
Jacques tends to dismiss concerns for human rights as the...