Product Description

An invigorating book about the debates raging within China. We all know about the fast pace of change in this country. This book brings us the ideas being fought over in the country itself -- from democracy to the idea of a 'peaceful rise'. It challenges all of our assumptions about China. We know everything and nothing about China. We know that China is changing so fast that the maps in Shanghai need to be rewritten every two weeks. We know that China has brought 300 million people from agricultural backwardness into modernity in just 30 years (something that took 200 years in Europe). China's voracious appetite for resources is gobbling up 40% of the world's cement., 40% of its coal, 30% of its steel, and 12% of its energy. It has become so integrated into the global economy that its prospects have immediate effects on our everyday lives: simultaneously doubling the cost of the London Olympics while halving the cost of our computers; keeping the US economy afloat but sinking the Italian footwear industry. We have an image of China as a dictatorship; a nationalist empire that threatens its neighbours and global peace. But how many people know about the debates raging within China? What do we really know about the kind of society China wants to become? What ideas are motivating its citizens? We can name America's Neo-Cons and the religious right, but cannot name Chinese writers, thinkers or journalists -- what is the future they dream of for their country, or the world it is shaping? Because China's rise -- like the fall of Rome or the British Raj -- will echo down generations to come, these are the questions we increasingly need to ask. Mark Leonard asks us to forget everything we thought we knew about China and start again. He introduces us to the thinkers that are shaping China's wide open future and opens up a hidden world of intellectual debate that is driving a new Chinese revolution and changing the face of the world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #76961 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-18
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Waterstone's Books Quarterly
'Intriguing and stimulating...An important book.'

Review
'Leonard fills (a) gap (by) survey(ing) the fierce arguments about human rights, development and China's place in the world.'

From the Back Cover
We know everything and nothing about China.

We know that China is changing so fast that the maps in Shanghai need to be re-written every two weeks. We know that half the world's clothes and footwear have a 'Made in China' label on them. We know that China has brought 300 million people from agricultural backwardness into modernity in just 30 years - something that took 200 years in Europe - and that the emergence of 1.3 billion consumers into the global economy will force us to re-write our geo-political maps. We know that China matters. But the more we learn, the less we understand. In this vital new book Mark Leonard goes behind the monolithic facade of the country's communist party and reveals from first-hand encounters what sort of society China will become in the future, what makes it tick, what ideas are motivating its citizens, what arguments are raging in its think-tanks, universities and journals. This book will ask you to forget everything you thought you knew about China - and start again.

Customer Reviews

Economic success at what cost?
I found this book in many ways an eye opener. China is portrayed as a bit of a dark horse, acheiving wealth and power as the result of very carefully thought out rationale. The methods China has used to achieve success is possibly the most interesting aspect of this book, which is an examination of Chinese politics and the global consequences.

I applaude the authors balanced arguements, despite his self confessed opinion that Europe will prevail enventually (see his previous book.)I found it a disturbing read, (as a non religious person), to observe the achievements of a non religous state putting human rights and
the environment as an after thought. The European concept of interdependance to regulate selfish interest would appear to be a morally
superior secular arrangement.

The author makes the valid point that a sudden change to democracy would create many problems itself, it is interesting to entertain the idea that autocracy can compete. However, this is unlikely to endear the reader to such a prospect.

The thing that prevented this book from getting five stars was the neglect of the issue of population. After the boom came the single child policy, what does China think about pensions? (Not mentioned) This book, however, remains a sound, if brief introduction to a completely different way of working a society.

An important and beautifully written book on China!
"Since the time when French and British missionaries first travelled to the East, the West has focused on what it wanted from China - and how to convert the Chinese to a Western way of life. People wrongly assumed that as China grew richer, it would also become more like us."

If you want to know what future the Chinese are dreaming of for their country, or the world it is shaping, read this very concise and enjoyable book.

Argueably the most accessible and current work on where China is heading - which is principally dependent upon what China thinks rather than what the West thinks.

First-class book; highly recommended.

To understand China from a business point of view, I also recommend The China Executive.

Ideas from China's leading political theorists
To get a perspective on what some Chinese political theorists are thinking, consider this. While Westerners "anguish" about how to manage China's rise, Chinese think-tankers debate about "how to manage the West's decline"! Wang Yiwei, from Fudan University, shares this worry, and asks, "How can we prevent the USA from declining too quickly?" (pp. 115-116)

What this book attempts to provide is a Chinese perspective on the rise of China and its place in the world as it has grown from a largely agrarian society in the days of Mao to a superpower of the 21st century. To do this, Mark Leonard, who wrote "Why Europe Will Run the 21st Century," traveled in China and interviewed many of China's leading thinkers on politics and economics. A number of these scholars have advanced degrees from American universities. They have taken Western ideas back to China and incorporated them into traditional Chinese ways of thinking, consistent with the dictates of the ruling Communist Party. Leonard shows that within this unique political culture there have arisen various points of view, from the "New Right" of, e.g., Zhang Weiying, to the "New Left" of, e.g., Wang Hui, from ideas about the "peaceful rise" of China to notions more in keeping with the thinking of the so-called "neo-comms." Part of the debate is about the use of military power, part of it is about how to influence other countries, and part of it is about how to manage its own people.

Since Deng Xiaoping opted for a market economy within the political dictatorship, the growth of China has been extraordinary. But with this growth have come problems: pollution, growing economic inequalities, the yearning for political democracy, and the infusion (perhaps one might even say the "invasion") of ideas foreign and inimical to the perceived interests of the communist state. To fight the disagreeable ideas from without, the government has trained "an e-police force of 100,000 people employed to scour the net, blocking sites and checking e-mails."

Leonard allows that this number may be exaggerated, but the point is clear: China wants to modernize, and to do so, must learn from the West, but at the same time it must not allow Western ideas to ferment dissention at home. Just how this delicate tightrope walk works in the public forums for China's leading thinkers is part of what makes this book interesting.

The "New Right" which led the change from Mao's soviet style economy to what the Chinese call "Yellow River Capitalism," which ushered in the gargantuan economic growth, has come under fire from various quarters, including the "New Left" which unlike the "old left" supports market reforms. However, as Wang Hui sees it, "China is caught between the two extremes of misguided socialism and crony capitalism...."He adds, "We must not give total priority to GDP growth to the exclusion of worker's rights and the environment." (p. 33) "Princeling" Pan Yue (as some of the privileged and talented members of the younger Chinese generation are called) "has talked of `China's environmental suicide,' and in an interview with the German magazine, Der Spiegel, predicted that `China's economic miracle will end soon because the environment can no longer keep pace.'" (p. 42-43)

Cui Zhiyuan, who is professor of Politics and Public Management at the Tsinghua University in Beijing, sees Chinese politics in Machiavellian terms: "For Machiavelli power was not divided between two levels: the state and the people. Florentine politics was split between three groups, the prince (the `one'), the nobles (the `few') and the people (the `many'). In today's China, the `one' is the Communist Party, the `few' are the super-rich, and the `many' are the people." (p. 47)

There have been some experiments in "deliberative democracy" at the village level to allow some input into central party decisions. The Chinese have learned from the experience of the Soviet Union that ignorance of what people at the grass roots level think can lead to not just inefficiency but to disaster. However this token gesture toward political reform is not likely to replace the "deliberative dictatorship" that current holds sway. Nonetheless, "The government seems to realize that developing institutional ways of dealing with grievances can make the state more stable." (p. 74)

I think this last point is one that we in the West and especially in the United States need to understand. For most people in the world the first responsibility of the state is to provide security and stability. After that perhaps political freedom can evolve. China, learning from the failed Soviet experiment, has put economic reform first and political reform later.

In international relationships, China is trying to develop "soft power" as a means to further its interests. The US, until the recent rise of George W. Bush and the neocons, exemplified the use of soft power to influence others through its culture and its economic strength. China wants to avoid the recent mistakes of the US such as invading other countries and is pursuing a policy of non-intervention in the internal affairs of other nations. Unfortunately it is also indiscriminately supporting dictators such as Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. Leonard asserts that "China will never be supportive of multi-party elections and human rights: why would it promote rights for foreigners that it denies to its own citizens?" (p. 126)

Leonard provides a "Dramatis Personae" near the end of the book identifying some of China's leading political and economic thinkers. There are endnotes and an index. All things considered, this is a good, albeit short, introduction to contemporary Chinese political thinking.