When China Rules the World

Conceptual in nature, Martin Jacques’s book on the future of the global economy, When China Rules the World (2009), argues that Westernization and modernization are distinct movements that used to overlap functionally but are now beginning to diverge. With the emergence of non-Western superpowers, Jacques anticipates a decline in the political and economic supremacy of the West and, along with it, of Western ideologies and grand narratives. Terming this emerging era one of “contested modernity,” Jacques singles out China as likely to be the biggest world superpower by the end of the twenty-first century. The book has been celebrated for dismantling common Western assumptions related to the grand narrative arc of modernity, and its emphasis on the concept of multiple, competing modernities. When China Rules the World is ambivalent about the question of which modernities will ultimately triumph, provoking readers to understand that each one is self-interested and self-justifying.

Jacques begins his book by challenging the notion that there exists one Western modernity. In fact, we are watching many modernities evolve around us as knowledge, technology, and capitalism evolve. He argues that Chinese modernity will be starkly different from Western modernity, to the point of being at odds with it. Jacques makes a statistical argument that China is on track to become the biggest economy in the world by the 2030s. Thereafter, its growth will only continue to increase, until it dwarfs that of the United States. Jacques states that China’s economic primacy will affect every aspect of global life, from the cultural, to the political, to the ideological, as global systems reorganize in terms of China’s norms and desires.

Next, Jacques provides historical background to support the idea that Chinese modernity is fundamentally different from Western modernity. Thousands of years ago, China was the top power in East Asia, where it dominated the tributary-state system. It was poised to take over other parts of Asia up until the late 1800s when European colonists arrived on the scene. Afterward, though China was unable to exert its full power, it continued to operate as the epicenter of East Asia’s economic life. Jacques argues that as China approaches and exceeds the power of other top superpowers, aspects of its dormant tributary system will begin to reemerge. Jacques calls China a “civilization-state” rather than a nation-state, pointing to its assignment of high value to its early history as well as its enormous size.



Jacques also argues that China is much different than any Western state, partly because it has enjoyed virtually no competition for half of its existence. The West, on the other hand, has gone through nearly endless war, has been manipulated by various churches, and has been restrained by more checks and balances to power. On the other hand, Chinese people view their state as their guardian and the source of their prosperity. Jacques claims that the Chinese view their culture as superior to any other. To back up this claim, he cites a finding that 92 percent of the Chinese population identifies itself as a single race, the Han Chinese, despite empirical knowledge that the country is actually much more diverse. In contrast, countries like Indonesia, the U.S., and India affirm that they are highly multicultural and multiracial “melting pots.” Jacques also argues that the communist era is an ideological continuation of the Confucian era: both eras espoused the negation of the self in favor of a grander narrative.

At the end of his book, Jacques reiterates that China’s ascension marks the end of Western dominance. He tells his readers, assuming most of them are from the West, that their world will become increasingly unintelligible and strange as China transforms the way people think and act. When China Rules the World is not only about economic domination, but about the existential transformations that result from shifts in economic and ideological power.