Soon China will rule the world. But in doing so, it will not become more 'Western'. Martin Jacques' groundbreaking book overturns conventional thinking about the ascendancy of China, showing how its impact will not just be economic, but cultural. As China's powerful civilization reasserts itself, it will signal the end of the global dominance of the Western nation-state, and the start of a future of 'contested modernity'. This profound, far-sighted book explains for the first time the deeper meaning of China's rise to power.