Martin Jacques, best-selling author of When China Rules the World, spoke about China’s impending global dominance during his keynote address to launch UAlberta’s International Week 2013.
Martin Jacques says the global power shift from west to east is inevitable, but it need not be a threat if westerners can learn to understand and appreciate the culture that is driving it. Jacques, a senior visiting fellow at the London School of Economics and a visiting professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, spoke about the rapid rise of China during his keynote address Jan. 28 to formally kick off the events of the University of Alberta's International Week 2013 . Gordon Houlden , director of the U of A's China Institute, introduced the British author and public speaker to the audience in the Myer Horowitz Theatre and telecast viewers in Calgary and Trinidad. He called Jacques bold and ambitious for his approach to tackling some of the toughest questions concerning China in recent years, such as how modern China achieved its remarkable pattern of growth and modernization, and noted that Jacques "is not afraid to challenge us to think hard about how far China's momentum will carry the nation, and what will be the implications for the rest of this planet." Among those implications, says Jacques, are changes to fundamental western ideas and ideals on morality, ethics and culture. That's why he says events such as International Week are crucial. "We're moving with great speed into a world that is entirely different from anything we've known for the last 200 years.
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