By far the best book on China to have been published in many years, and one of the most important inquiries into the nature of modernisation. Jacques's comprehensive and richly detailed analysis will be an indispensable resource for anyone who wants to understand contemporary China -- John Gray New Statesman Provocative ... stimulating ... full of bold but credible predictions ... I suspect it will long be remembered for its foresight and insight -- Michael Rank Guardian This important book, deeply considered, full of historical understanding and realism, is about more than China. It is about a twenty-first-century world no longer modelled on and shaped by North Atlantic power, ideas and assumptions. I suspect it will be highly influential -- Eric Hobsbawm Jacques's book will provoke argument and is a tour de force across a host of disciplines -- Mary Dejevsky The Independent [An] exhaustive, incisive exploration of possibilities that many people have barely begun to contemplate about a future dominated by China. ... [Jacques] has written a work of considerable erudition, with provocative and often counterintuitive speculations about one of the most important questions facing the world today. And he could hardly have known, when he set out to write it, that events would so accelerate the trends he was analyzing. -- Joseph Kahn The New York Times Book Review A very forcefully written, lively book that is full of provocations and predictions -- Fareed Zakaria GPS, CNN [A] compelling and thought-provoking analysis of global trends... Jacques is a superb explainer of history and economics, tracing broad trends with insight and skill -- Seth Faison The Washington Post The West hopes that wealth, globalization and political integration will turn China into a gentle giant... But Jacques says that this is a delusion. Time will not make China more Western; it will make the West, and the world, more Chinese The Economist
"Provocative... a fascinating account."
-Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
"[A] compelling and thought-provoking analysis of global trends.... Jacques is a superb explainer of history and economics, tracing broad trends with insight and skill."
- The Washington Post
"[An] exhaustive, incisive exploration of possibilities that many people have barely begun to contemplate about a future dominated by China. ... [Jacques] has written a work of considerable erudition, with provocative and often counterintuitive speculations about one of the most important questions facing the world today. And he could hardly have known, when he set out to write it, that events would so accelerate the trends he was analyzing."
- The New York Times Book Review
"The rise of China may well prove to be the defining economic and geopolitical change of our time, and few authors have given the subject deeper thought or offered a more illuminating analysis than Martin Jacques."
-Niall Ferguson, author of The Ascent of Money
"A clear wake-up call."
- Christian Science Monitor
"A clear-eyed look at how China's recent modernization will leapfrog Western 'superiority'."
- Kirkus Reviews
"An extremely impressive book, full of bold but credible predictions. ... I suspect the book will long be remembered for its foresight and insight."
- The Guardian (UK)
"Delivering a tour d'horizon of China's relations with foreign countries, Jacques envisions their future development as comparable to a comeback of imperial China's tributary system. Jacques' views will be discussion starters for trend-spotting students of the world scene."
- Booklist
Martin Jacques coedited and coauthored The Forward March of Labour Halted?, The Politics of Thatcherism, and New Times. Jacques cofounded the UK think tank Demos, has been a columnist for The Times of London, and was editor of Marxism Today and deputy editor of The Independent. He currently writes a regular column for The Guardian and is a visiting research fellow at the London School of Economics Asia Research Centre.