Exploring Two Millennia of China's Exceptionalism at Lewes Speakers Festival

The author of eight books on the country, Jonathan, who was the editor of the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong during the handover from Britain to China, will explore the past achievements and the natural and man-made wonders which act as foundations for China’s emergence as a global super-power today.

It’s a story in which the word exceptionalism is key, he explains.

“My argument is that China has always regarded itself as an exceptional nation, a nation above and different from others and you got that particularly in the imperial system when China considered itself the Middle Kingdom suspended between heaven and earth – and considered that other countries were barbarians.

“There is nothing like China. To begin with you think about its size and also the number of inhabitants which until recently was the world's most populated nation. And then you think about the extraordinary depth and longevity of its civilisation going back 10,000 years – though that figure is up for question by some historians. You think of that and you can see that it gives China a feeling of specialness.

“It drives the nation but it also drives nationalism and at the end of the empire which lasted two millennia, it encouraged a certain complacency and a feeling that ‘We have got everything and we don't need to learn from anyone.’ And that’s why you have got the remarkable failure of China during the 19th century to adapt to inventions and modernity which is why England and the US took over. But the question is now whether it is catching up. When you think of certain areas, then China is already way ahead though there are other areas where China seems to be unable to get its act together.”

Inevitably these days there is a degree of suspicion towards China on account of its size but also its importance: “China makes just about anything in the world more cheaply and more expertly than any other country. It has become an economic bellwether in the world. It's an economic mover.”

Trump's tariffs underline its importance: “China has taken up the baton particularly from the US and Europe to make all the kinds of things that we stopped making. The fear is now whether China can transfer its economic strength to exercise political and strategic and military strength, particularly in its immediate area. The fact is we have not woken up to the importance of China. We have always seen it as a useful source of cheap goods to keep down our inflation and to provide us socks and Christmas decorations and children toys at low cost, but we haven’t realised that it has ambitions that go far beyond that – and that’s what I will be talking about at the festival, linking it with its past history. There was a time when China accounted for a third of global GDP and now China is back on the path towards global rejuvenation…”

In a journalistic career spanning four decades, Jonathan was editor of The Observer, the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong and Reuters World Service. He also held senior editorial posts at The Economist, The Independent and The Guardian and has been a foreign correspondent in Vietnam, Germany and France where he spent twelve years working for Reuters, The Economist and The Times. Jonathan has published 20 books, mainly on modern global history, China and France. After returning to the UK from Hong Kong in 2000, he was a founding partner of the analytical economic-political service Trusted Sources where he headed China research and regularly visited the People’s Republic as well as travelling globally to see clients.

The festival runs from May 9-11.