China Shakes the World

A Titan's Rise and Troubled Future - and the Challenge for America

By: James Kynge

Narrated by: Robert Blumenfeld

Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

"Let China sleep, for when she wakes, she will shake the world." Napoleon's words seem eerily prescient today, as the shock waves from China's awakening reverberate across the globe.

In China Shakes the World, the former China bureau chief of the Financial Times, James Kynge, traces these tremors from Beijing to Europe to the Midwest as China's ravenous hunger for jobs, raw materials, energy, and food - and its export of goods, workers, and investments - drastically reshape world trade and politics.

Delving beyond mere recitation of by-now-familiar statistics, Kynges on-the-ground reporting provides alternative explanations for China's explosive transformation, revealing many of the usual reasons given for its growth to be myths. Most important for the future, he details China's deep, systemic weaknesses - rampant fraud, crippling environmental crises, a corrupt banking system, faltering government institutions, a rapidly aging population - that threaten even greater global disruptions. And he demonstrates the profound consequences of those weaknesses for American manufacturers, oil companies, banks, and ordinary consumers.

Through dramatic stories of entrepreneurs and visionaries, factory workers and store clerks at the heart of this global phenomenon, China Shakes the World explains how China's breakneck rise occurred, the extraordinary problems the country now faces, and the consequences of both for the 21st century.

©2006 James Kynge (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Kynge's crisp assessment of the dynamics involved is both authoritative and eye-opening." (Publishers Weekly)

"Should the U.S. worry about China? Most definitely—but, by Kynge's account, for different reasons from the ones being raised on Capitol Hill." (Kirkus Reviews)

Details behind today's headlines

Would you listen to China Shakes the World again? Why?

While very interesting, I would not want to listen to it AGAIN.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Story about the rise of China. Not really character oriented.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

It's far too long for that.

Any additional comments?

Written about 2007, it gives reasonably current insight into China.

I Got a Feeling China Will Figure It Out!

This is another in the great line of books that depict China's rising global economic power, yet also a lot of the challenges that will go along with it.

There are so many great books that have been written recently about China's economic rise over the last decade or two, and this is one of them.

Myself, being an "ex-pat" living in China, I can see firsthand a lot of the evolving trends that China is going through at this moment. China is serious about playing on the global world stage whether it's economic, militarily or social.

My best hope is that cooler and calm heads will always prevail as the positioning for global economic might takes place among not only China, but the US, Russia, South Africa, and also when the European Union gets back on its feet.

Understand the global economy

Even though a decade old the book provides insight into a global culture shift in the way goods and services will be offered. A great listen to expand fundamental economic outlook for generations to come. The read was in my wish list for quite some time, wish I would have pulled the trigger earlier.

Happy listening.

I really enjoyed this book. it opened my eyes 👀

I liked the humanity of the Chinese. how their goverment is corrupt like the USA and how it have a lifetime like every matching

Must read to understand of today's China

I last visited China in 1999. You could feel the change in the air. Kynge captures the tempo and the drive of China. To understand what the Chinese approach to life and competition, is to know how to counter the actions. This book helps one understand how China is reshaping itself and thus the world markets,