China

A unique 40-year personal memoir of China from a career diplomat and politician. George Walden specialised in China in the Foreign Office and was one of the few Westerners in China in 1964 who spoke Mandarin. In this powerful memoir, he shows what China wants from the world is always long-term as opposed to our short term focus - in 1950 Mao warned Russia that its policies would bring the collapse of soviet communism. He argues that we compare the country to Britain or the United States at our peril. The Chinese juggernaut that has launched on to the world stage is of a size without any precedent in human history. The only way to grasp what our future with China is going to be like for the next 30 years is to describe what it really wants. key points description author