China Shakes the World: The Rise of a Hungry Nation

By James Kynge, London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006.

Decades ago after the Bolshevik Revolution, a well-known journalist visited Soviet Russia and concluded famously, "I have seen the future and it works." Now as the 21st century dawns, the leading correspondent for London’s Financial Times has visited China and returned profoundly shaken, mumbling figuratively "I’ve seen the future and it is frightening." He is fearful that China’s rise spells ill for the destiny of imperialism worldwide.

It is well, in any case, to juxtapose the former Soviet Union with China since in explicating the demise of the former, the role of the latter—particularly after the infamous journey some 35 years ago to Beijing by then President Richard M. Nixon---was critical. But, as it turns out, future historians will no doubt view the U.S. entente with China as one of the most transformative alliances since France aided the struggling rebels in North America defeat the British Empire or since London allied with Tokyo at the beginning of the previous century in order to—supposedly—guarantee British interests in Asia. For the opening of China to inward investment from the U.S., Europe and Japan has served to create what may turn out to be this century’s juggernaut with titanic consequences for white supremacy, imperialism and world socialism alike.

The author first traveled to China in 1982 as an undergraduate student where he learned to speak the language and has spent about two decades there and is, thus, well-positioned to assess its progress. His book consists mostly of striking vignettes and intriguing word pictures of contemporary China. He has concluded that "China’s ascent now mirrors that of the U.S. in the second half of the nineteenth century." As he sees it, China’s rise represents "a challenge unprecedented in the annals of global capitalism." As he sees it, "in many areas of manufacturing, European [and North American] companies cannot compete in the longer run—no matter what countermeasures they…may take." The author concludes, "it is, in fact, difficult to think of an area of technology in which China does not have credible ambitions to lead the world." China, he argues, "can drive down the average level of working wages and the prices of manufactured products worldwide, while propelling the prices of most sources of energy and commodities through the roof."


Unfortunately, the author ascribes many of the problems now befalling the working class in Europe and North America to the rise of China, as opposed to the rapaciousness of the bourgeoisie. "The McKinsey Global Institute," he says, "in a global study on outsourcing, has calculated that 9.6 million U.S. service jobs could theoretically be sent offshore today. If that was actually to happen, the U.S. unemployment rate would rise to 11.4 per cent from 5 per cent in mid 2005…..these trends taken together foreshadow a political crisis," responsibility for which he lays at China’s doorstep.

But a close reading of the author’s own words belie this questionable hypothesis. For example, he notes in passing in 2004 "participation numbers at the annual international Science and Engineering Fair run by Intel, the U.S. semiconductor company," reveal that "in the U.S., 65,000 students participated in local fairs to select finalists. In China, six million did." Now should Beijing be blamed because the U.S. ruling elite in its tax-cutting mania and its blatant racism refuses to spend wisely on public education?

Slowly but surely bourgeois commentators are coming to have increasing doubts about the rise of China and what led to it. There is an "uncomfortable paradox," says the author: "China owes its emergence in large part to the free-trade system created by America since the war, but in many ways it is still not a creature of that system. In several aspects, its economy, political system, culture, military posture and values are different from most of the other nations that have reached maturity under the Pax Americana."

Like many in Washington and Brussels, the author is concerned with China’s foreign policy, its developing ties with Russia, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Iran, and other regimes that the international bourgeoisie finds distasteful. He is concerned about the rising levels of Chinese investment in North America and Western Europe, as Beijing has "flipped the script." More than this, however, is the dawning realization that—unlike the recent past—world imperialism may be incapable of doing anything meaningful about China at this late date. This is so not least because of a factor that the author fails to stress: the central bank in China has accumulated a hoard of foreign currencies, worth a whopping $1 trillion at last count, and has been loaning this capital to the guardian protector of world imperialism in Washington, which has been forced to borrow because of its obscene profligacy in military spending and, again, its tax cutting mania. The financial dependence of the U.S. on China tremendously constrains the latitude of imperialism generally.

Thus, one closes this book with mixed feelings: it is well worth reading because of the colorful eyewitness descriptions of what is unfolding in the planet’s most populous nation but, like others before him, the author does not come to grips with the unavoidable fact that the long-time, long-term policy of anti-Sovietism—which drove the opening to China—may, ironically, have sealed the gloomy fate of world imperialism.