When China Rules the World

For well over two hundred years we have lived in a western-made world, one where the very notion of being modern is inextricably bound up with being western. The twenty-first century will be different. The rise of China, India and the Asian tigers means that, for the first time, modernity will no longer be exclusively western. The west will be confronted with the fact that its systems, institutions and values are no longer the only ones on offer. The key idea of Martin Jacques' ground-breaking new book is that we are moving into an era of contested modernity. The central player in this new world will be China. Continental in size and mentality, China is a 'civilization-state' whose characteristics, attitudes and values long predate its existence as a nation-state. Although clearly influenced by the west, its extraordinary size and history mean that it will remain highly distinct, and as it exercises its rapidly growing power it will change much more than the world's geo-politics. The nation-state as we understand it will no longer be globally dominant, and the Westphalian state-system will be transformed; ideas of race will be redrawn. This profound and far-sighted book explains for the first time the deeper meaning of the rise of China.

ISBN 0713992549   Pages 576 ISBN13 9780713992540 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 989 Publisher Penguin Books Ltd   Published in London Imprint Allen Lane   Height (mm) 240 Format Hardback   Width (mm) 162 Publication date 25 Jun 2009   Spine width (mm) 38 DEWEY 327.51   Academic level General DEWEY edition DC22

		List of Figures
		List of Maps
		List of Tables
		List of Illustrations
		Note on Transliteration, Names and Currency
		Major Periods in Imperial China
1		The Changing of the Guard		1
I		The End of the Western World
2		The Rise of the West		23
3		Japan - Modern But Hardly Western		46
4		China's Ignominy		70
5		Contested Modernity		100
II		The Age of China
6		China as an Economic Superpower		151
7		A Civilization-State		194
8		The Middle Kingdom Mentality		233
9		China's Own Backyard		272
10		China as a Rising Global Power		316
11		When China Rules the World		363
12		Concluding Remarks: The Eight Differences that Define China		414
Appendix		The Overseas Chinese		436
		Guide to Further Reading		438
		Select Bibliography		442
		Notes		469
		Index		543

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