Experimental Blog #50

Comments on "When a Billion Chinese Jump" - How China Will Save Mankind - Or Destroy It by Jonathan Watts

Right near the beginning of this book this British author, Jonathan Watts, declares that his book's "structure is polemical rather than geographic." The book is highly praised; there are 10 recommendations from other authors or executives of organizations of public education or opinion. However, the author's writing should not be accepted without any criticism, such as, he seems so determined in his polemic, or disputation, that he often gives the impression that he is contradicting himself, even if that may not be more strictly true. His stated "facts" are occasionally controversial, such as, he says that China has 3000 years of continuous history, the world's longest, while other authorities have usually, or often, given 4000 years, or even longer, for this figure. The author twice, first in the text and again in the end notes, seems to report, without sufficient comment, that China has converted carbon dioxide into hydrogen!

However, in spite of this frequent, or even continuous polemical overstating, this book is a very informative tour of some of China's provinces and territories and China's immense significance and problems, both for itself and for everybody else too.