WHEN CHINA RULES THE WORLD By MARTIN JACQUES

Posted on February 2, 2010 by Jeffrey Newman

Soon I will be traveling to Kungming China with my daughter, who will spend six months studying the Chinese culture and the Chinese public health system. I figured I’d better read some books about China since I know dangerously little and what little I do know comes from our news media. Martin Jacques, a Professor, founder of a think tank and journalist wrote an interesting book theorizing that China will soon rule the world and it won’t be the same. By conservative estimates, by 2027, the Chinese economy will overtake ours as the world’s largest economy and by 2050 it will be twice as large as the U.S. economy. Jacques, who bases his theories upon his studies of Chinese history, says that China will come to control the world economy and will hold a strong hierarchical view of things which views itself as a superior civilization to all others. Mandarin, now spoken by twice as many people in the world than those speaking English, will become a primary language. Chinese Universities will, over the next two decades come to occupy positions within the top ten universities in the world, attracting scholars from around the world. China will take a more proactive and interventionist role in international financial affairs, Shanghai will become a global financial center, all of which will be hastened by the global crises we are now facing. This large book, filled with history, data and extrapolations, is not an easy read but it is a worthwhile read. The world is changing so quickly and in such fundamental ways that we need to reach out for well informed information in our daily lives. When I am in China, I will report daily on my observations and the translations of my daughter, who is 20 and fluent in Mandarin.