Business in China

China 21st Century

China in the 21st Century - What Everyone Needs to Know

China is already an enormous player on the international stage and its power and relevance is only predicted to continue growing into the future. Despite China's importance, many in the West view China as a mystery. The culture in China is far different than most of the rest of the world. The government is also organized in a vastly different way. Factors such as these can make China seem somewhat alien to most people in the West who only gets information about China in bits and pieces from the media.

The book, China in the 21st Century -- What Everyone Needs to Know, has been written to provide interested individuals with a brief background on many of the factors that help define China as a nation and as a culture. The book begins by describing the historical legacies that are relevant to China. To understand today's China, it is crucial to know something about its past (Wasserstrom, 2010). The book begins with Confucius and outlines information about how Confucianism and its history influence the Chinese society today. The Chinese government is even developing "Confucius Institutes" around the world to spread an understanding of its cultural legacy internationally.

The book also covers briefly the role of the early dynasties in shaping the modern nation of China. One of the enduring features of this legacy was that the central political role played not just by the monarch but also by members of his (and, rarely, her) family and some have attributed the fact that China largely has a more authoritarian government in the contemporary period (Wasserstrom, 2010). Yet the extent of authoritarianism in China is often exaggerated in contemporary Western media today.

The most interesting aspects of the book deal with the present and future of China and how its power and influence will play out in world affairs. Topics in the second half of the book deal with many of the current misconceptions of China in the West as well as how China's rise to a super power status will influence global affairs into the future. One of the most interesting subjects in modern Chinese society is the existence of what is referred to as the digital divide and how internet access could affect the society in the future. In China the digital divide can be defined as people who have access to the internet and those who don't. Furthermore, China's censorship of the internet, or the "Great Firewall of China" as some refer to it, is also an interesting subject. I do not think the author gives these subjects the attention that they deserve in the book and they only receive a few short sections.