The China Shock – How Beijing is Making the World Amenable for its Needs -

The USA is plunging into a crisis; the German boom has fizzled out; yet China continues to boom despite partial slumps. In order not to jeopardize the high growth rate the Chinese urgently need raw materials. For these they will pay almost any price since they have more than 1500 billion US dollars of foreign exchange reserves at their disposal. In Central Asia, the Middle East and in Africa the Chinese manage to get one oil rich country after another onto their side. At the same time the Chinese are buying themselves into the large western investment banks such as Morgan Stanley and are conquering the west ‘auf dem rucken der Heuschrecken’. Their companies are increasingly becoming global players. In the category of the largest national economies of the world, the Chinese will oust Germany from the third place in 2008. For the first time in centuries the west is faced with a serious competitor.
Is our affluence in jeopardy? Is there the threat of a new colonialism? Will the price of oil soar to 200 US dollars? Frank Sieren has been the only German economic journalist on the ground that has followed China’s rise for fourteen years. The best-selling author who has travelled through several continents has revealed how the middle kingdom is pulling the strings throughout the world – and in the process is putting our western values to their so far, hardest test.
‘The China Shock’ is available at: www.amazon.de
Hardcover edition, 432 pages, Euro 19.90 (D), Euro 20.50 (A), sFr 35.90
(February 2008)