China urged to flex muscles on world struck by recession

CHINA must impose its demands on the West, using the global financial crisis to leverage its power play, according to a bestselling new book which has caused a firestorm among the giant country's elite.

Sociologist Huang Jisu and his four colleagues have created such a fierce debate with Unhappy China, a collection of essays that booksellers were last week warned by the government not to give prominent display or leave on their bestseller lists.

"They don't like any big phenomenon that draws reaction in this society. No matter if it's a west wind or an east wind, if the wind is strong it must be an evil wind," chuckled Mr Huang in a recent interview in a sunny café on the edge of Beijing's downtown Wangfujing district. He arrived carrying a wrapped copy of a suspiciously similarly named tome, Why is China Unhappy, which appears to have been released for the sole reason of criticising him and his co-authors.

Such is the debate around Unhappy China, it blew through its first printing in less than a month and is now available in pirated versions on Beijing's streets as well as in bookstores.

Mr Huang's book, at times virulently nationalist in its tone, says Chinese intellectuals have stood aside while their country became a victim in a rampant system of global capitalism which has now plunged the world into crisis, and argues that China needs to reject the West's calls for reform and begin setting its own conditions for foreign trade and political dealings.

The problem, the author argues, dates to China's kowtowing to western countries after the Opium Wars of the 1800s, a position which it has never overcome despite ascending to become the world's third-largest economy. Today, with China's foreign reserves at nearly £1.3 trillion and many of the world's strongest economies in recession, Mr Huang and his colleagues believe China should flex its political, as well as economic, muscle.

"China has kept following the western world. But now the system has some major problems and it needs more major powers participating … We think China should be among the important powers, though I don't think it should be the only one," he said.

"China is doing quite well in this system today, but the problem is that the present system will be very difficult to continue because of the economic crisis," Mr Huang continued. "Improving this system is not only in the interest of China, but also other countries, because the system is going to collapse."

In one chapter, co-author Wang Xiaodong argues that with "Chinese national strength growing at an unprecedented rate, China should stop debasing itself, recognise the fact that it has the power to lead the world and break away from western influence".

Another, by co-author Song Xiaojun, calls the United States "an old cucumber with green paint", and says: "China now is too soft in diplomacy and lacks the spirit of newborn calves that are not afraid of tigers."

In a country where political commentary is not always encouraged, reviews of the book have reached a surprising level of dissonance – leading one bookshop worker to confess they had been urged by government representatives to keep the book on a back shelf .

"It reveals many problems that Chinese dare not speak out about," wrote a reader identifying himself as Alexander Dang on the dangdang.com comment section, where the book was given four out of five stars. "It should be read by everyone concerned about the state."