Understanding China and Its Rise: The 'Civilization-State'
Understanding China and Its Rise: The 'Civilization-State'  L to
R: Martin Jacques, James Crabtree and Mark Tully discuss China
in Mumbai on July 31, 2012.  MUMBAI, July 31, 2012 — "The
biggest desire for the West has been to understand China through
the Western prism. I think that is why the Western perception
and prognosis of China is so frequently wrong."  This was a
central thesis of the case made here by Martin Jacques, author
and scholar on modern China, in an Asia Society discussion with
Sir Mark Tully, Former Bureau Chief of the BBC in New Delhi,
that was chaired by James Crabtree, Head Financial Times Bureau
in Mumbai. The discussion focused on Chinese identity, Western
and Indian perceptions of China and China's future role within
Asia and the rest of the world in terms of both economic and
foreign policy.  Jacques began by discussing his theory of China
as a "civilization-state," a function of a unified population
and strong integration wi