Political survival and Yasukuni in Japan’s relations with China, by Mong Cheung, Abingdon, Routledge, 2017, 165 pp., ISBN: 978-1-138-94570-8

Abstract

the Chinese state the evidence of solid economic success, hence vitality of the country’s “developing authoritarianism,” or the natural result of a dependent development that has reached its limits? The questions raised above, however, do not constitute a refutation of the book’s general theoretical framework. Instead, they serve to enrich debates surrounding the relationship between capitalism, democracy, and development to greater academic sophistication. And answers to these questions would further strengthen the author’s extraordinary insights into the identical challenges facing the entire human race: “distribution and sustainability – not growth and wealth.” In this regard, as the author rightly put it, “neither neoliberalism nor state capitalism is the remedy for the other.” Consequently, for the underdeveloped Global South, the anti-developmental rules of the game as established and overseen by the Global North do not lend justification to repressive regimes, however impressive the latter’s development model of “wealth without freedom” appears to be during a certain period of time, not to mention that their way of pursuing wealth stands little chance of success in achieving genuine modernity in any meaningful way. To make the world a better place to live for the whole of humanity, therefore, rethinking globalization is essential to bringing the “political shell” back to capitalism in industrial democracies and to making development goals more achievable for the developing world. This entails painful paradigmatic and institutional innovations for the entire world in terms of building “democratic peace” and “The Wealth of World” (not narrowly “Nations”) in a creative way. But first and foremost, as the author cogently recommended in the Conclusion, concerted efforts should be made by the Global North and the Global South to seek relegitimation through “stationary growth” and “moderate growth,” respectively. Comprehensive, illuminating and insightful as this volume has unfolded, Guoguang Wu’s contribution is, from all perspectives, invaluable both academically and practically.