Martin Jacques Quotes
China has existed within very roughly its present borders for over two millennia and for virtually the whole of that period saw itself as a 'civilisation state.' It was only when it was too weak to resist the western powers in the early 20th century that it finally acquiesced in an arrangement that was alien to it.
Jacques, Martin. When China Rules the World: The End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order. Penguin Press, 2009.
In 1832 the President sent Edmund Roberts, a New Hampshire sea captain, to arrange commercial treaties with Asian countries such as Burma, Indo-China, Siam and Japan:
The Arabs have a long history of arrogant and disdainful treatment by others given the British Colonial history in the Middle East, the French (who invaded Egypt under Napoleon), the Islamic Ottoman Empire which controlled the Middle East before that, and others. Along with the arrogance that usually comes with empire, Western support of the only democracy and modern state in the Middle East—Israel—was even more resented by the Arabs. Historically, there was a general feeling by much of the world that if the Arabs had no oil, no one would pay much attention to them. The Arabs naturally resented these attitudes. It was not until Nasser’s successor, Anwar Sedat, came to government in Egypt and King Hussein reformed Jordan, that Western attitudes began to change towards the Arab nations. The Western change was not because of any Arab “lesson” but the result of new, exceptionally capable leaders who have been reforming the Arab nations.
China has historically been so large and diverse that unity was difficult and very rare. Also, the Chinese have had a very expansive view of what China was. The Chinese have seen Tibet, Mongolia, Vietnam, parts of Burma and much of Asia as a part of the “motherland”.
She was ruling the largest country in the world and Denby’s opinion was held by most who knew China. What made her all the more remarkable was that, as a Chinese lower middle class women, she had no formal education, had rarely been allowed to travel out of her home or interact with men. As a young teen she was made a concubine to the Emperor and rarely left the harem. Like Abraham Lincoln she was self-taught and not only was able to seize power in China without any male advisor or patron, but she ruled as well as any world leader. In her later years she was pushing her country too fast and far, and the Western Powers had caused much domestic difficulty and to maintain power, she had to ally with the anti-West Boxers causing her reputation amongst Westerners to sink dramatically and thereafter was never much acknowledged for her remarkable political skills and accomplishments.
Martin Jacques is a British journalist and academic. Jacques was a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, becoming, in his own words, "a member of its Executive Committee, probably the youngest member ever at about twenty-two". He was editor of the party's journal, Marxism Today, from 1977 until its closure in 1991.
