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Updated Sunday, October 4, 2009 5:08 pm TWN, By Hilton Yip, The China Post

Understanding the impact of China's rise

British intellectual, author and Guardian columnist Martin Jacques was in Taiwan earlier this week for several talks on his book, through which he makes a powerful assertion – that ...

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Understanding the impact of China's rise

While Jacques' optimistic views on China's rise are hardly uncommon nowadays, there was a time when he was just one of a handful of believers. It was on a 1993 visit to East Asia that Jacques first realized the potential of China's rise. While impressed by Hong Kong and Singapore, he was particularly struck by China, “with southern China it was not how modern it was, but the fantastic energy of transformation, it felt like being back in the British Industrial Revolution, except on an extraordinary scale.”

Jacques came back fully convinced of the significance of East Asia, “I was extremely unusual,” he admits. But he was right and 16 years later, hasn't been proven wrong. Since then Jacques has made many trips to the region, taught at several universities and lived in Hong Kong for over two years.

The idea to write a book on China first came in 1996 but the tragic passing of his wife, which affected him deeply, led to its postponement until earlier this decade.

When it comes to Taiwan, Jacques is much less sanguine. This being his first visit here in 10 years (fourth overall), he admits to feeling disappointed, “I'm struck by not how much it's changed but by how little it's changed, this feeling that Taiwan's been marking time.”

The recent warming in cross-strait relationships seem to please Jacques, who strongly urges Taiwan to get closer to China. “Taiwan has to ask how it can stand outside transformation in the region. Taiwan has to be part of this, cannot be a spectator, can't look for its salvation to U.S.” stressed the author.

Not surprisingly, the ongoing financial crisis serves as a major indicator of the decline of the West for Jacques, “sometimes it requires a great event to throw longer-term trends into some kind of relief and demonstrate underlying forces which changes things. I think the global financial crisis was a catalyst for bringing into perspective the rise of China and decline of the U.S., the rise of the developing world and decline of the developed world G-20 vs. G-7. And the underlying problem of American indebtedness was suddenly revealed to world as serious weakness. China's strengths became much more [noticeable].”

It may be too soon to see if China will become a superpower for certain, but Jacques' assertion that China's rise will be on its own terms is worth thinking about from Taiwan's perspective. ■

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