Locating China in the Twenty-First-Century Knowledge-Based Economy

Abstract

In the early nineteenth century a ‘great divergence’ occurred that bifurcated civilizations into East and West, sending the former into descent. Since the 1950s, however, the economic growth of East Asia has been nothing short of remarkable. This development has led some scholars, such as Giovanni Arrighi and the colleagues of Takeshi Hamashita, to optimistically suggest the resurgence of East Asia in general and the re-centering of China in particular, a line of reasoning that appears to draw on memories of the China-centered tributary trade system defining the region for centuries. For these scholars, the rise of East Asia after 1950 can be seen as a reversal of the great divergence. We challenge this view. Data show that China has yet to prepare for the new knowledge-based economy. Furthermore, we raise the possibility that Japan may move farther away from, rather than closer to, the traditional center of China in the twenty-first-century East Asian interstate system.

Notes

*Vincent Shie is Associate Professor of Sociology at Fu Jen Catholic University, Taipei, Taiwan. He specializes in analyses of high-tech industry, development studies, Third World industrialization, and the economic policies of Taiwan. Craig Meer received his Ph.D. from the Department of International Relations at the Australian National University; his specialty was the economic policies of Taiwan and China. He is currently the Program Officer for Lighting at the Australian Greenhouse Office, Ministry of the Environment, Australia. Nian-Feng Shin is a Ph.D. student at the College of Law, National Taiwan University. The authors can be reached by [email protected].

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