But by the book’s end, the characteristics of modern China are listed as eight. They’re now the aforementioned four, plus four more. First is the long-standing refusal of the Chinese state to share power with any other institution (the church and merchants’ guilds are mentioned as having been powers-within-the-state in Europe). Things are little different under Communism than under the emperors and “something like the mandate of Heaven still operates.”
Second comes the unparalleled speed of the country’s recent transformation, followed by the rule of a Communist Party that has, according to Jacques, exhibited a flexibility and pragmatism far in excess of anything the former Soviet Union ever displayed. And finally there’s the fact that China is likely to combine the characteristics of a developed and a developing country for some time to come.
US Decline
Jacques feels sure that US power will decline. “Its medium-term reaction is unlikely to be pretty; the world must hope it is not too ugly,” he opines. Is it possible I detect a tone of anti-Americanism here, and elsewhere?
It’s easy to get annoyed with this book. The author mentions, for example, that Chinese leaders have been quick to quote the conclusions of the amateur British historian Gavin Menzies that Chinese explorers once reached American and Australian shores, without being outspoken about the fact that professional Western historians give Menzies’ claims no support whatever.
It’s not that Jacques is explicitly pro-China, but more that he’s at pains to avoid the usual invective, and eager to display current issues against their historical and social backgrounds. This, then, is a handbook for those who will have to deal with the new China rather than a re-packaging of old complaints and stereotypes.
Even so, you have to feel that a chapter on China’s judicial system would not have been out of place. It’s something that doesn’t bode well for human rights, now or in a China-dominated world. But human rights get little mention in this book.
Nevertheless, this is a reliable book in the areas the author opts to cover. It leans over backwards to give China its due, and this may not go down well everywhere in Taiwan. But then this is a book that’s as remarkable for what it leaves out as for what it includes.
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