The Great Decoupling

For much of recorded history, China was a leading science and technology power. But just as the West rose, China turned in on itself, and missed the Industrial Revolution. The result was the 'Hundred Years of Humiliation', and a long struggle for a modern, yet distinctly Chinese, civilisational identity. Today, technological innovation has returned to the core of national pride and ambition.

Since the 1980s, reforms have transformed China into the world's second largest economy and a major global power. Cyber space and other advanced technologies have become a battleground for international dominance; but today's world relies on global supply chains and interstate collaboration - at least, for now. Growing tension between the USA and China could result in the two superpowers decoupling their technology - with significant consequences for humanity's future.

The Great Decoupling shows that this technology contest, and how it plays out, will shape the geopolitics of the twenty-first century.

'[Inkster] reinforces a sense that the US-led west and China are locked in a desperate struggle not only for technological supremacy but also - in the case of the west - to preserve its liberal system...[he] does not appear at all certain that the west will prevail in the contest that he describes.' - Financial Times

'The [book's] central message - that [China,] this profoundly regimented and authoritarian country, is about to achieve global economic and military hegemony - is sound, well-documented and a disturbing challenge to the West as it emerges, battered, from the Covid nightmare.' - The Herald

'Linking his knowledge of China past and present to fascinating detail of China's achievements and aspirations in advanced technology, Nigel Inkster provides a powerful and compelling narrative of the decoupling of China and the United States. You will learn much of importance from this book.' - Lord Mervyn King, former Governor of the Bank of England