Turning to Face the East

The global crash has dramatically changed the world's balance of power. America, once the world's hyper-power, is in retreat and mired in debt. Europe confronts a similar fate and with weaker animal spirits for help. But China's rise seems unstoppable. The Asian century, long predicted, is arriving 20 years faster than expected.


But Britain isn't ready. Since the loss of empire, our trade and security have been bound up with our neighbours across the wide Atlantic and the narrow channel. Worse, the globalisation of the last 20 years has left us feeling introspective and insecure and in little mood for a new and determined push overseas.


Yet now is not the time for a failure of nerve. Our success in the century ahead may depend on our success in Asia. Britain now confronts a choice. To muddle through and get by with old allies or fast forward and resolve to prosper in the Asian century.


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'In the space of a generation China has risen from isolation and poverty to become a global power, but one we have no easy framework within which to understand. Liam Byrne's wide ranging study, grounded in his own experience as a politician, asks how fit for purpose UK policy is towards this major complex power, and finds it wanting. This book is a wake-up call for policy makers, business people, academics - anyone who needs to think and engage with China. And these days, as his book vividly shows, that means pretty much everyone.' (Kerry Brown, Former Head Of Asia Programme, Chatham House)


'What a wake-up call! We really are at five-to-midnight as our country deals with Asia's century. Turning to Face the East sets out the 'how did we get here' and then the 'what can we do about it' and leaves hanging in the air the conclusion that every reader must reach about what will happen to us if we do nothing.' (Lord Digby Jones)


'Liam Byrne's book is a thoughtful and wide-ranging reflection on one of the most crucial economic issues facing Britain today. It will stimulate an important and much-needed debate on our future in an era of growing Chinese power.' (Rana Mitter, Professor Of The History And Politics Of Modern China, University Of Oxford)


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Liam Byrne is MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill, Labour's Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, and Coordinator of Labour's policy review. His publications include the textbook, Local Government Transformed (1996), Information Age Government (1998), Cities of Enterprise (2002), Britain in 2020 (2003), Reinventing Government Again (with Phil Collins) (2004), Why Labour Won (2005), A Common Place (2007), A More United Kingdom (Demos, 2008) and Why Did Labour Lose - and How Do We Win Again (2010).