Page 2 of 2 BOOK
REVIEW China and the 'enlightened'
West The Writing on the
Wall by Will Hutton
consistent with Enlightenment values. Yet
even the more liberal capitalist period was
consistent with the slave trade, colonialism and
rapacious commercial policies abroad plus
aggressive anti-labor policies at home.
This does not seem to bother Hutton very
much. In his note of how China was carved up by
the colonial powers in the 19th century, he argues
that one of the big disadvantages China had in
the
conflict was to have been relatively peaceful. The
greater experience of competition, conquest and
war among the European powers, especially the UK,
put them in a commanding position when they sent
in the gunboats. Perhaps "Gunboat Enlightenment"
is the fuller development of his political
concept.
His poster boy for Enlightenment
values is the US. This is despite his coverage of
US protectionism in the 19th century and up to the
1940s, when he admits that historically "the
United States was the undisputed king of
protectionism" (p 254). All seems to be okay,
however, because after 1947, the US changed tack.
To thwart the new threat from the Soviet
Union, the United States turned against an earlier
idea of ruralizing Germany and Japan, newly
defeated in war. Helped by its clear supremacy in
productive capacity and finance at the time, the
US instead embarked on a program of trade
liberalization that assisted the dramatic growth
of the global economy in the post-World War II
period.
That phase of "enlightenment" for
Hutton seems to have come to an end in the early
1970s, with the onset of the first oil shock and
economic crisis. Since then, there has been a
retreat from Enlightenment values, led by "a
conservative campaign to revitalize American
capitalism [that] has grown into an all-devouring
monster" (p 284). The devouring consists of a
sharp rise in inequality, a "fervent
anti-Enlightenment religiosity", the atrophy of
regulation, and short-termism in business
strategy.
We can all recognize the latter
points in contemporary images of the United
States. However, this is an odd division of
history. What about McCarthyism in the 1950s, or
US policy in Asia and Latin America before the
1970s? Were these examples consistent with the
Enlightenment tradition? Presumably so. In
general, Hutton does not really question US
policy. Hence, for example, while the Vietnam War
was a "humanitarian and tactical disaster", the
"original intent of the war (defeating communism)
was justifiable" (p 285).
Enlighten
yourself The irony running through
Hutton's book is that it lauds the benefits of
liberal market capitalism for China at the same
time as the West is giving up on it. He is aware
of this, however, and calls for the West
(particularly the US and the UK) to return to
"Enlightenment values" - as a way both of
revitalizing their own economies and of managing
the rise of China.
Yet perhaps the real
problem is that he can only really point to a
25-year phase of development (roughly from 1945 to
1970) when, in his view, such values reigned
supreme. That 25-year period was exceptional in
many respects. The US was in an overwhelming
position to manage the postwar boom and also to
benefit from it, while the challenge from the
Soviet Union put some constraints on the exercise
of power politics.
Now we are in the
post-communist era, and we witness an unstable
mix: continued US military pre-eminence, declining
US economic power, and the rise of a more
preemptive US foreign policy in the so-called "war
on terror".
China is now a big element in
a more unstable world system, in Hutton's view.
Its economic rise challenges US global influence
and its political and military policies are not
subject to US wishes in the same way as for other
major countries. He cites the case of Iran, for
example, where China's backing has helped to
thwart US policy.
His remedy is twofold:
China must be encouraged by the West to reform,
and the US must recognize that its current
economic problems are "largely home-grown" (p 283)
and not China's fault. This would "build China
into the world system and genuinely offer it the
possibility of co-managing the system for mutual
benefit" (p 250).
Overall, Hutton's book
reveals a Western policy pundit's anxiety about
China's rise in the global economy and the impact
that this might have on a more aggressive United
States, the former manager of the global
capitalist system. The book covers a lot of
ground, and is valuable for that. However, its
bias is one of allowing far more leeway to accept
US policy (despite some criticisms) than to
understand the constraints that China has had in
trying to thrive in a global economy dominated by
the Western powers.
Hutton has an
apocalyptic view of China's development if it does
not embrace Western values straight away. However,
this probably underestimates the Chinese
authorities' ability to adapt and to manage the
next stages of economic change. The tensions he
describes are real enough, however, and will no
doubt be the subject of further books in the
months and years to come.
The Writing
on the Wall: China and the West in the 21st
Century by Will Hutton. Published by Little,
Brown, 2007. ISBN-10: 0316730181. US$40, 431
pages.
Tony Norfield is a former
executive director and global head of
foreign-exchange strategy for ABN AMRO Bank. He
has traveled extensively in Asia over the past
decade.
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