Why China Will Never Rule The World

Troy Parfitt
Western Hemisphere Press: £9.76

With a title like Why China Will Never Rule the World: Travels in the two Chinas, and a hefty 400 plus page girth, I turned the first page with the sort of trepidation usually reserved for a thick political memoir.

One man’s solitary campaign to dispel a fact the whole world believes to be true? Surely the author had his work cut out…

But to my surprise, it was fascinating. And highly persuasive.

Having lived and worked in Taiwan and China for over a decade, Canadian author Troy Parfitt is utterly convinced that China is not the superpower-in-waiting that Western governments and the world’s media would have us believe.

In his new book, Parfitt argues that despite the country’s staggering economic growth, its history, culture and a rigid society built on Confucian principles will ultimately prevent China from achieving global domination.

Audaciously, it is even suggested that the Chinese people themselves are actually pre-disposed to, and possibly even suited to living under a repressive regime which is why democracy still looms so distantly on the horizon.

A bold premise indeed, and Parfitt sets about proving his theory by travelling around the two Chinas pointing his high-powered perception at everything and everyone he comes across and evaluating what he learns within the framework of his considerable knowledge of Chinese culture and political history.

Written as a travelogue in a wonderfully descriptive style (and with plenty of funny anecdotes), Parfitt vividly depicts a country and populace that few of us really understand, or will ever experience, and although neither are painted in a favourable light; it is very enlightening.

With invitations to guest blog for CNBC.com and a forthcoming US radio interview planned, Parfitt's book has clearly been noticed, which it should be acknowledged, would likely have got him imprisoned if he’d written this as a Chinese national.

If you've always fancied visiting China, then this book might just change your mind (it’s now right up there with Chechnya and Yemen on my list of places not to visit), but given China’s economic influence in the wider world, it should be essential reading for the masses.

Shelley Antscherl
shelleydutchnews@me.com