When the People's Republic embarked upon its reforms in the late 1970s, it did not simply ‘open up’ to take advantage of the opportunities that the world had to offer. China's opening up coincided with, and was part of, a fundamental restructuring of the capitalist world order that was taking place at the time and that continues until this day. These changes are often captured under the headings of the end of the Cold War, or the rise of neoliberalism and globalization, and have opened up spaces around the world that China can and sometimes must fill. It does so together with a growing list of other rising countries, such as Brazil, India, Indonesia, Turkey or, in the slightly longer run, Iran or South Africa. China's rise is thus a vital part of rather than the only source and cause of a fundamental restructuring of the global order. Although China has the very considerable advantages of size and being a first mover, there is nothing uniquely Chinese or historically inevitable about its rise. History has no memory and China isn't special. Despite its current growth, wealth and power, it is not China's destiny to ‘rule the world’, although it is very likely to become (and in fact already is) a very significant power.

To say that the world will be much more than a Chinese place does not mean that this book's China-centric view is inappropriate. Quite the contrary, looking at the world from Chinese perspectives will facilitate the realization that the emerging world order is fraught with uncertainty rather than the straightforward passing of the baton into Chinese hands. Even though the world is becoming more Chinese with every passing year, it is also becoming more Indian, Latin American, Islamic, and even more European and American. The future is very unlikely to be one of China superseding the West or more specifically the US. Neither is it likely that a separate Chinese world will develop in parallel with a Western world. Globalizing Chinese capital, people, goods and culture merge with those from other parts of the world. Globalization does not equal Americanization, Japanization, Sinification, Islamization or Westernization, terms that describe the struggle between separate and unequal worlds.