China Shakes the World Review
Ran Zheng
BPE Senior Seminar
Professor Wachtel
09/25/2012
“China Shakes the World”
James Kynge, the former China bureau chief of the Financial Times in Beijing, presents a realistic and honest version of China with his book “China Shakes the World”. After spending years researching about the Chinese economic, social and political conditions, James had a good understanding of both the current conditions in China as well as the path China took to be where it is now. The author has an unbiased view on China’s ups and downs, and presented only facts to readers.
The author mainly diagnosed China from six different dimensions: historical, population, international, resource, social, and political. As the author demonstrated in the opening of his book, the developing path that China took was not a smooth one, and modern Chinese history is filled with unintended changes and outcomes. Even in China today, debates exist on whether Mao Zedong’s victory in the Chinese civil war was beneficial to the country in general, or even another step further, how China’s role in the world has evolved from the ancient giant.
Over the past millennia, China has always been regarded as a prestigious country, producing high quality goods like silk, pottery, tea, and painting. It was during the Qing dynasty when China began to fall behind due to the industrial revolution in the western world. As the author argued, although China has been one of the largest nations both by population and by GDP, it has never been a superpower in the world. It is true that ancient China appeared to be rich and had a high standard of living, but China had always relied on agriculture and its vast population merely lived above subsistence level. While ancient China had enough resources to feed its enormous population, the nation itself was constantly battling in civil wars as well as defending itself from foreign invasion. Aside from rudimentary technology development including the compass, papermaking,
BPE Senior Seminar
Professor Wachtel
09/25/2012
“China Shakes the World”
James Kynge, the former China bureau chief of the Financial Times in Beijing, presents a realistic and honest version of China with his book “China Shakes the World”. After spending years researching about the Chinese economic, social and political conditions, James had a good understanding of both the current conditions in China as well as the path China took to be where it is now. The author has an unbiased view on China’s ups and downs, and presented only facts to readers.
The author mainly diagnosed China from six different dimensions: historical, population, international, resource, social, and political. As the author demonstrated in the opening of his book, the developing path that China took was not a smooth one, and modern Chinese history is filled with unintended changes and outcomes. Even in China today, debates exist on whether Mao Zedong’s victory in the Chinese civil war was beneficial to the country in general, or even another step further, how China’s role in the world has evolved from the ancient giant.
Over the past millennia, China has always been regarded as a prestigious country, producing high quality goods like silk, pottery, tea, and painting. It was during the Qing dynasty when China began to fall behind due to the industrial revolution in the western world. As the author argued, although China has been one of the largest nations both by population and by GDP, it has never been a superpower in the world. It is true that ancient China appeared to be rich and had a high standard of living, but China had always relied on agriculture and its vast population merely lived above subsistence level. While ancient China had enough resources to feed its enormous population, the nation itself was constantly battling in civil wars as well as defending itself from foreign invasion. Aside from rudimentary technology development including the compass, papermaking,