China Shakes the World: The Rise of a Hungry Nation
by James Kynge, Houghton Mifflin, September 27, 2006, 288 pages
In China Shakes the World, former Beijing bureau chief of the Financial Times James Kynge follows the reverberations from Beijing to Italy to the American midwest as China's demand for jobs, raw materials, energy, and food - as well as its export of goods, workers, and investments - radically reshape world trade and politics. Going beyond the familiar statistics, Kynge explores more surprising underlying reasons for China's explosive growth. He also indicates the country's systemic weaknesses that threaten greater global disruptions, such as rampant fraud, crippling environmental crises, corrupt banking systems and faltering government institutions. Through various stories of entrepreneurs and visionaries, factory workers and store clerks, the book explains how China influences the daily life of people around the world and how it will shape the twenty-first century.
Three Billion New Capitalists: The Great Shift of Wealth and Power to the East
by Clyde Prestowitz, Basic Books, May 31, 2006, 321 pages
Clyde Prestowitz, a former Reagan administration trade official and current president of Washington-based think tank the Economic Security Institute, presents in this book what he sees as the powerful trends that are threatening to end the 600-year run of Western domination of the world. The trends include America's increasingly unsustainable trade deficits; a collapsing dollar and a debt-dependent economy; the end of America's position as the world's centre for scientific training and research; the reality that Americans consume too much and Asians save too much; and the sudden entrance of workers in India and China (who, along with those of the former Soviet Union, comprise the titular new capitalists) into the world's skilled job market with longer working times and lower wages. Prestowitz offers insight into these important topics currently being argued in government and corporate circles and provides his own forecast for the future of the US and the world at large.
