“China’s Asian Dream” by Tom Miller – book review

Posted By on Apr 2, 2017 in Columns |


In view of our April 20 event on Globalization, I was intrigued to pick up this book by an old friend, Delphi Network adviser and former China Correspondent, Tom Miller.

I have been pondering that globalization is stymied, as people reconsider the paradox of the global flow of capital and trade alongside inadequate nation-based regulation.

Scarcely a day goes past without some MNC being accused of poor conduct, either tax evasion, regulatory arbitrage or money laundering.

 

Yet Tom’s book shows that while globalization may be unpopular with the current US president, and cosmopolitan elites are having second thoughts, the concept is booming in non-Western regions.

Indeed, China is rolling out a “Marshall Plan” extending to Pakistan and Afghanistan in the West; Vietnam, Cambodia, Burma, Thailand and Laos in the South; and across the fractured territory of Central Asia. The positive aspects of this story are far less known than its bellicose conduct in the South China Seas.

Nor is China alone. Russia has also rolled out its version of globalization, the Eurasian Economic Union. The two countries compete and complement each other in central Asia, with Russia’s lopsided economy providing military expertise and China the economic muscle.

But China is not obtaining the same credit as the US did. Current beneficiaries are not utterly abject as much of Europe was in 1945. Much of Asia depends on China, but not for survival.

The Chinese approach, one could say, is too direct and unadorned. While the US promised consumer spending, democracy, human rights, sex, films and culture, China offers little to complement is bridges, roads, power stations and high-speed trains. (Tom acutely points out the paradox of historical assimilation with Chinese culture on the one hand, and strident anti-Chinese nationalism on the other).

 

China’s issues with being “likeable” are perhaps exemplified when Tom meets trader Fei Xiaodong – “a beefy man with a shaven head and pot belly, carrying a wad of cash in a crocodile skin bag, with the baby croc’s head still attached”.

And while the US was able to use the UN, NATO, the World Bank and the IMF to build a vision of mutual security and endeavour, China’s coldly realistic exposition of a tributary relationship with its neighbours falls flat.

Tom’s analysis is nuanced and thoughtful. He unravels the outrage China has caused with its territorial grab in the South China Seas, but concludes that a country wanting to guarantee its vital sea lanes for oil and trade is only what other “great powers” have done in the past. China is now the second-largest economy in the world, and like a stone hitting the water, the ripples of its ascent will grow – if only through ensuring protection of its investments and nationals abroad.

Tom cautiously points out that it is the US which has a “ring of steel” around China, not the other way around. He leaves us with the interesting thought that it is the US which should grant China the same respect for its sphere of influence as the US demanded from its earliest days.

Regarding the concept of globalization which I started with, Tom’s book made me think that the word is a misnomer. Every country likes to pretend that making its national standards global is both inevitable and for everyone’s benefit. But China’s example shows the trendy term “globalization” is not as remote from old-fashioned “empire-building” as its proponents pretend.

The full title is China’s Asian Dream: Empire Building along the New Silk Road. And the Amazon link is here
https://www.amazon.com/Chinas-Asian-Dream-Empire-Building-ebook/dp/B01N4RCGJG/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1491220555&sr=1-1&keywords=tom+miller+china