When China Rules the World: the End of the Western World and the Rise of a New Global Order

The UCLA Center for Chinese Studies presents a talk with Martin Jacques on China's rise.

China's rise hitherto has been seen in almost exclusively economic terms. This fails to grasp the full meaning of China's rise. Its political and cultural impact will be at least as great. We are entering a new era marked by the decline of the western-made world which has been a hallmark of the last two centuries and the emergence of a new world in which Chinese influence will become increasingly apparent. China will not become a replica of the West, even though it is influenced by it. On the contrary, Chinese modernity will be highly distinctive. China is not even a nation-state but at heart a civilization-state. Its attitude towards race is highly specific, while the Chinese state occupies a different relationship to society compared with western nations. We stand on the eve of a new and very different kind of world.

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Martin Jacques is the author of 'When China Rules the World: the End of the Western World and the Rise of a New Global Order'. He is a senior visiting fellow at LSE's IDEAS and also a visiting fellow at its Asia Research Centre. He has been a visiting professor at Renmin University, Beijing, at the International Centre for Chinese Studies, Aichi University, and at Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto. He has also been a visiting senior research fellow at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore. He was previously editor of the acclaimed journal Marxism Today and also deputy editor of the Independent newspaper. He is a columnist for the Guardian and New Statesman, and previously the Sunday Times.