China’s Change – The Greatest Show on Earth by Hugh Peyman

The West has lost its way. Post-Brexit Britain wants to ‘take back control’ and Trump’s American wants to ‘Make America Great Again’. Western countries are refusing to change and adapt to a modern world, harping back to an idealised bygone era. Western politics has been dominated by rash decisions and short-term thinking and distributed in fast slogans and quick soundbites. We have become inward-looking and polarised.

China, on the other hand, is no longer a state-driven economy with policy determined by ideology – it is an economy run by private companies and boosted by millennial-driven consumers. China’s ability to absorb change and manage it well has seen the country succeed at a time when others struggle. This is according to Hugh Peyman, author of China’s Change: The Greatest Show on Earth.

Peyman’s book doesn’t merely address China’s recent achievements but puts them in the context of historical change over millennia. Chinese philosophy, centred around Confucianism, focuses on balance and harmony – Yin and Yang – the central way or the Dao, rather than emotionally led extremes.

Families and governments alike don’t plan for five or ten years but for five or ten generations

Filial piety and ancestral belief systems has meant that families and governments alike don’t plan for five or ten years but for five or ten generations. Therefore, instead of trying to keep alive dying industries, China looks at future industries and promotes the advancement of these.

Peyman explains that change certainly does not occur overnight – and that research, trial, further research and then mass implementation often has short term pains but fundamentally leads to longer term gains – which in the long run is good for the stability of the country and therefore its people.

China’s Change is an insightful read that takes a different viewpoint from many books on the topic. It also rams home the point that if the West is to compete in the modern age we also need to look back at our history and not be afraid of making bold changes. In 1942, Britain introduced the welfare state and universal employment. In 1961, Kennedy vowed to put a man on the moon and did so within the decade; and, in 1990, Chancellor Kohl successfully reunited Germany. Major changes have taken place in recent years that few would have believed possible shortly before they took place.

Today, he argues, it’s time we stopped looking for instant solutions and start looking towards the future.

China’s Change is out now and available on Amazon.

Hugh Peyman writes for FOCUS on What We Can Learn From China here. (LINK TO MAIN FEATURE PLEASE)