2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The first half is excellent, but the second half is not, February 16, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Inc.: The Dynamics of a New Empire (Vintage) (Paperback)
Overall this is a good book, but it's big, chock full of facts and statistics. It helps to have some background knowledge of many of the figures involved. Still, most of the book is well written (or translated), so that the recitation of facts and statistics don't impede your reading at all.
In the first half of the book, Kemenade covers not just China, but China's relations with Taiwan and Hong Kong, and how those two `tigers' have dealt with the biggest power in the East. He certainly brings out the intractability and the inflexibility of the China's ruling elite on the matter of Taiwan's independence. And they show a shocking lack of sensitivity in order to save face - in the Qiandao incident, where close to 50 Taiwanese tourists were murdered, the mainland Chinese authorities were inhumanly hostile to the bereaved relatives, and refused to accept any responsibility at all. Actions like those that will do nothing to make the mainland endearing to the Taiwanese.
But it is also clear that the mainland authorities are capable of great patience and subtlety in their aim of achieving reunification with Taiwan. For instance, Kemenade illustrates how China has been encouraging Taiwanese businesses to invest heavily in the mainland over the past years so as to increase Taiwan's independence on the mainland. And he goes further, showing how ambivalent the Taiwanese are about business investment in China, and the measures politicians have taken to stem the flow of money to the mainland.
Kemenade deals neatly with the simmering regional/central issues on the mainland itself. He discusses in a fair amount of detail how the massive economic growth of "special economic zones" is creating centrifugal pressures on China's traditional unitary state. China may be politically centralised, but it is economically becoming a federation. He points out how in the area of tax collection, the local authorities are strong and central authorities weak; and the extent to which the local authorities - particularly in the rich provinces - are resisting tax collection by the central government.
Unfortunately, the second half of Kemenade's book is much less convincing or even interesting to read. This is very unfortunate.
Kemenade covers the economics of the Northeast of China, an area rarely discussed by modern commentators. He discusses mainly the investment of the other Asian economies, like Japan and South Korea, into the Northeast, often thought of as an industrial wasteland. The problem for me here was that the earlier chapters on Hong Kong and Taiwan were so compelling and comprehensive that this later chapter about the Northeast of China paled by comparison.
Kemenade has little to say about Russia-China relations. I got the impression that Kemenade was saying that the Chinese do not feel as threatened by the Russians as the Russians do by the Chinese. This would seem to be a result of the economic and political confidence of the Chinese. This is plausible. Unfortunately, his evidence for this point was very weak.
Given Kemenade's generally full coverage of China's domestic problems, his discussion of the Tiananmen Square massacre is surprisingly superficial. Although he gives you some of the political intrigue behind the scenes - and it is Li Peng who emerges as the real villain - he doesn't discuss in any depth the events leading up to the massacre. That's a bit disappointing.
There has been some criticism that Kemenade only deals with the `how' and not the `why' of mainland China's policies, but this seems superficial. The approach Kemenade takes is to show us by illustration, rather than spoon-feed us. His book requires you to make up your own mind. On the other hand, there is some truth in the criticism, particularly in the second half of the book, and I would have liked to have seen a little more focussed discussion.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A hard to put down look at Greater China., September 24, 1999
This review is from: China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Inc.: The Dynamics of a New Empire (Vintage) (Paperback)
Although there is a plethora of books on China there are few books on Taiwan and fewer still on relations between the two countries. Kemenade is to be thanked for taking up the challenge of such a daunting subject. He realizes that Taiwan can't be understood without looking at its overlarge, over-testosteroned neighbor. Kemenade excels at explaining the intricate business relationship between China and Taiwan. Despite constant worries of invasion from China, Taiwanese businessmen flock to China to make their fortune. On one hand China tries to keep Taiwan locked in a diplomatic cage, but on the other hand Taiwan is the third largest investor in China, and would probably be the second if Taiwan's government didn't actively discourage investment on the mainland. One of the few books on Chian that I have reread and will likely read again. Admittedly, not the best summary of China but what book under 1,000 pages is. Kemendae gives you the facts to make your own conclusions about what is happening in Greater China.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
excellent, objective, well-informed, February 10, 1999
I bought this book around the time of the HongKong handover and just read it now. I found the author very knowledgeable about Chinese history and culture, his political and economic arguments well-reasoned. The information in the book was also very helpful in some Asian international tax and business work my group is doing. I thought it was also good that the author lives in Beijing, giving him personal knowledge, and is neither American, British, Chinese, Hong Kong Chinese or Taiwanese, thereby avoiding any slant towards or prejudices against the major players in this saga. Overall, I learned a lot and I'd like to see him follow up in a year or two on subsequent developments. This book also got me interested in the history of Shanghai, so I ordered a few books on that subject.
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