Peter Nolan - China and the West: Crossroads of Civilisation (Routledge Studies on the Chinese Economy)

Capitalist globalisation since the 1980s has produced immense benefits in terms of technical progress, poverty reduction and welfare improvement. However, it has been accompanied by profound contradictions, including ecological destruction, global warming, inequality, concentration of business power, and financial instability. Regulation of global political economy in the interests of the majority of the worlds population is essential if the human species is to avoid a Darwinian catastrophe. This book explores Chinas rich history of regulating the market in the interests of the mass of the population. For over two thousand years the Chinese bureaucracy has sought pragmatically to find a Way in which to integrate the invisible hand of market forces with the visible hand of ethically guided government regulation. Instead of seeking confrontation with China, citizens and politicians in the West need to deepen their understanding of the contribution that China can make to globally sustainable development in the decades and centuries ahead.

Peter Nolan is Director of the China Centre, Jesus College; Founding Director, Centre of Development Studies; Chong Hua Professor in Chinese Development (Emeritus); Director of the China Executive Leadership Programme; and a Fellow of Jesus College, University of Cambridge. In 2009 he was awarded the CBE (Commander of the British Empire) for services supporting Chinas integration into the global economy.

The aim of this series is to publish original, high-quality, research-level work by both new and established scholars in the West and the East, on all aspects of the Chinese economy, including studies of business and economic history.

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China and the West

Crossroads of Civilization

Peter Nolan

First published 2019

by Routledge

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2019 Peter Nolan

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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Names: Nolan, Peter, 1949- author.

Title: China and the West : crossroads of civilisation / Peter Nolan.

Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2019. | Series: Routledge studies on the Chinese economy ; 70

Identifiers: LCCN 2018022498| ISBN 9781138321281 (hardback) | ISBN 9780429452680 (ebook) | ISBN 9780429840425 (mobipocket)

Subjects: LCSH: China--Foreign economic relations--Western countries. | Western countries--Foreign economic relations-China. | China--Foreign relations--Western countries. | China--Civilization. | China--Economic conditions. | China--Politics and government.

Classification: LCC HF1604.Z4 W4966 2019 | DDC 337.510182/1dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018022498

ISBN: 978-1-138-32128-1 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-138-33188-4 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-0-429-45268-0 (ebk)

For Siobain, Dermot and Maeve

The way that can be spoken of is not the constant way.

The name that can be named is not the constant name.

The nameless was the beginning of heaven and earth;

The named was the mother of the myriad creatures.

(Lao Zi, 2009: 5)

A lalta fantasia qui manco possa;

ma gia volgeva il mio disio e l velle,

si come rota chigualmente e mossa

lamor che move il sole e laltre stele.

The chapters in this book were written in 20162017. In these years the tensions between China and the West intensified. In the West fears of an Eclipse of the West gained currency. Internal tensions related to economic stagnation and growing inequality of income and wealth were enhanced by fear of another financial crisis. The Brexit vote in Britain and the election of Donald Trump as US President reflected the deep anxieties within the West. Externally these fears were channelled into sharply increased hostility towards China within the mass media, among politicians, civil servants and academics. The possibility of a New Peloponnesian War became a central topic of political discourse. In China during this period the economy continued its robust growth. Popular living standards continued to advance, underpinned by massive infrastructure construction and continued progress in social welfare provision. The leadership became increasingly confident about the kind of political economy it was endeavouring to build, namely one in which the great majority of the population were provided with equal means for self-fulfilment. The realistic alternative development paths for China were a collapse of communist party rule (regime change), as happened in the Soviet Union, or Western-style democratic institutions as India has had since 1947. Neither of these alternatives is attractive for most Chinese people. The clarity with which the Communist Party of China perceived the countrys development path, and an awareness of the undesirability of the alternatives, helped to solidify mass support for the CPC and confidence of the mass of the population in the countrys leadership. The sense of confidence within and towards the CPC was demonstrated vividly during the Nineteenth Congress of the CPC held in November 2017.