China Shakes the World

China Shakes the World is about author James Kynge as he analysis China's history and how its gotten to where it is today. James Kynge reports on different limitations and issues that China currently faces. He describes these issues through interviews with individuals and personal experiences. This leads to a very personal feel and some of the interviews he has a truly shocking. One that sticks out in my mind is the story of a Chinese student who had her identity stolen. The student worked very hard in high school in order to get into a good college. She was surprised when she learned that she didn't score well enough to make it to college. She moved on with her life and continued to life in a very poor town. Many years later she found out that a student had stolen her identity and the grades she earned and went to college in her place. The story is absolutely devastating and was very emotional. It was terrible hearing that someone worked so hard only to have the success that they earned stolen from them. This was a story from a chapter titled The Collapse of Social Trust. This chapter dealt with the problems of counter fitting and its serious impact on China's economy. James Kynge tries to report a problem of counter fit goods to a hot-line number and is told to call different numbers that lead to no where. China is lacking in Intellectual Property rights which can be extremely difficult for a business.

Another chapter talks about China's growing consumption of natural resources and the environmental impacts due to pollution. This chapter dealt with the issues that China's pollution is having on its society. Such matters such as illegal deforestation, abused oil drilling, and extreme water and air pollution. These issues obviously have harsh effects on the nature in China. There is less accountability for factories to manage what pollutants they leak out into the environment which is only harming the natural resources of China.

In the chapter Communism vs Democracy James Kynge describes that while China is no longer a communist country it is still run by a communist party. However, he describes how China is becoming an economy driven country and how that is effecting government reforms. One interviewee describes how if China changes to quickly, thing will turn to chaos. However, if China doesn't reform fast enough, it leads to economic stagnation. This chapter also a address the issues of corruption in Chinese companies and its government. Illegal business practices of falsifying corporate earnings, issues of intimation and black mailing, and how the government does enforce or help. The author describes how China is trying to form a government structure similar to ours where different aspects of the government are equal and acts as checks and balances while still allowing the main communist party to remain in control.

Overall James Kynge's story is a very detailed book that describes in great detail hurdles China is currently facing, and how the world can interact with China's growing economy. James Kynge perspective of China was much different then my own so it was very interesting learning about some aspects of China I never got to witness or fully understand. It will be interesting to see how China changes in the future and if James Kynge's predictions will unfold as he describes them in his book China Shakes the World.