China Airborne

Zusatztext 45752774 Informationen zum Autor James Fallows Klappentext From one of our most influential journalists, here is a timely, vital, and illuminating account of the next stage of China's modernization-its plan to rival America as the world's leading aerospace power and to bring itself from its low-wage past to a high-tech future.In 2011, China announced its twelfth Five-Year Plan, which included the commitment to spend a quarter of a trillion dollars to jump-start its aerospace industry. In China Airborne, James Fallows documents, for the first time, the extraordinary scale of China's project, making clear how it stands to catalyze the nation's hyper-growth and hyper-urbanization, revolutionizing China in ways analogous to the building of America's transcontinental railroad in the nineteenth century. Completing this remarkable picture, Fallows chronicles life in the city of Xi'an, home to 250,000 aerospace engineers and assembly-line workers, and introduces us to some of the hucksters, visionaries, entrepreneurs, and dreamers who seek to benefit from China's pursuit of aeronautical supremacy. He concludes by explaining what this latest demonstration of Chinese ambition means for the United States and for the rest of the world-and the right ways for us to respond. INTRODUCTION The flight to Zhuhai   In the fall of 2006, not long after I arrived in China, I was the copilot on a small-airplane journey from Changsha, the capital of Hunan province near the center of the country, to Zhuhai, a tropical settlement on the far southern coast just west of Hong Kong.   The plane was a sleek-looking, four-seat, propeller-driven model called the Cirrus SR22, manufactured by a then wildly successful start-up company in Duluth, Minnesota, called Cirrus Design. Through the previous five years, the SR22 had been a worldwide commercial and technological phenomenon, displacing familiar names like Cessna and Piper to become the best-selling small airplane of its type anywhere. Part of its appeal was its built-in “ballistic parachute,” a unique safety device capable of lowering the entire airplane safely to the ground in case of disaster. The first successful “save” by this system in a Cirrus occurred in the fall of 2002, when a pilot took off from a small airport near Dallas in a Cirrus that had just been in for maintenance. A few minutes after takeoff, an aileron flopped loosely from one of the wings; investigators later determined that it had not been correctly reattached after maintenance. This made the plane impossible to control and in other circumstances would probably have led to a fatal crash. Instead the pilot pulled the handle to deploy the parachute, came down near a golf-course fairway, and walked away unharmed. The plane itself was repaired and later flown around the country by Cirrus as a promotional device for its safety systems.   On the tarmac in Changsha, on a Sunday evening as darkness fell, I sat in the Cirrus’s right-hand front seat, traditionally the place for the copilot—or the flight instructor, during training flights. In the left-hand seat, usually the place for the pilot-in-command, sat Peter Claeys, a Belgian citizen and linguistic whiz whose job, from his sales base in Shanghai, was to persuade newly flush Chinese business tycoons that they should spend half a million U.S. dollars or more to buy a Cirrus plane of their own—even though there was as yet virtually no place in China where they would be allowed to fly it. I was there as a friend of Claeys’s and because I was practically the only other person within a thousand miles who had experience as a pilot of the Cirrus. In one of the backseats was Walter Wang, a Chinese business journalist who, even more than Claeys and me, was happily innocent of the risks we were about to take.   We were headed to Zhuhai because every two years, in November, the vast military-scale runw...

Relazione

That is the new book by James Fallows.  On the surface it is a book about aviation in China, but it is also one of the best books on China (ever), one of the best books on industrial organization in years, and an excellent treatment of economic growth.  It is also readable and fun. Tyler Cowen
 
Not only does the book benefit from Fallows keen observations as a journalist in China, but also it is enriched by his technical knowledge as a passionate aviator. The result is informative and lively. The Economist  
 
What sets China Airborne apart from other books on China's rise is Fallows' remarkable ability to analyze both China's unprecedented achievements in economic modernization and its inherent limitations. . . . The story so brilliantly told in China Airborne, a metaphor for the much bigger story of China's rise, suggests that no one should take its future as a superpower for granted. San Francisco Chronicle

It is worth the reader s time to obtain it and read it. It is a timely look at a country in a newly dangerous economic and political situation. Understanding that situation is of utmost importance to the rest of the world. Asia Sentinel

Fallows has an earthy, engaging style, and he sees the human stories of government officials, entrepreneurs, workers and intellectuals all pursuing the dreams they have for themselves and their country as they take off together into the skies The book is accessible in different ways to different people. Sinologists and aviation geeks like me will happily pore through Mr. Fallows' detailed endnotes, trapped at the back where they won't bother casual readers. People looking for a grab buy at the airport will find something light that will also make them think. Businesspeople, students, or tourists going to China can pick this up and get a good grip on the Chinese zeitgeist. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 

Fallows keeps the reader engaged by weaving personal stories and lively personalities into his depiction of the changing aerospace landscape his book makes for an intriguing read, looking at both sides of the picture: reasons for why China might succeed, as well as those for why the country might struggle. Publishers Weekly 

Prescient. . . . Highly readable and significant, Fallows book should not be missed by those seeking to understand America s relationship with this global power.   Booklist, starred review

Precise yet accessible. . . . An enjoyable, important update on an enigmatic economic giant. Kirkus  

Will China change the 21st century, or be changed by it? China Airborne describes a country ambitiously soaring to fantastic new heights even as its destination remains perilously uncertain. James Fallows reports elegantly on the puzzles and paradoxes of this massive nation and its quest for global prominence. Patrick Smith, author of Somebody Else s Century   
 
James Fallows has found a brilliant metaphor for China, and he is uniquely qualified to unspool the tale. Based on years of firsthand experience on the ground in China and in cockpits around the world this book showcases his gifts for deep reporting and analysis. Fallows doesn't simply bear witness; he unravels and dissects. For this vast country to achieve a leading role in the aerospace industry, it must attain standards of innovation, efficiency and precision that would signal a new era in the rise of a superpower. Has it attained that level? There is no better writer to find the answer, and Fallows has done it. Evan Osnos, contributor to The New Yorker
 
In China Airborne, Fallows tells the story of China s efforts to become a global leader in aviation and aerospace, a story that reveals the economic and political tensions in contemporary China.  China s past economic success has been built on a combination of massive investment and labor force mobilization what Fallows calls hard economic power and autocratic political control.  But success in aerospace, like success in other industries that depend on innovation, requires what Fallows calls soft economic power things like trust, honest and transparent regulation, coordination between civil, commercial and military organizations, and a culture of free research and exchange of ideas.  Anyone interested China s future economic, technological  and political developments should read Fallows fascinating and insightful new book. Laura Tyson, Former Director of the National Economic Council and Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors in the Clinton Administration, professor and former dean of the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley

Praise for James Fallows
Fallows is refreshingly aware. . . . A shrewd observer of human foibles and political quagmires with the eye for detail of an experienced journalist, he gives us panoramic views of China that are both absorbing and illuminating. Jonathan Spence, The New York Times Book Review
 
Fallows represents the best of American journalism honest, fearless, and hard-hitting. Moving easily among Chinese, from the ordinary to the high-ranking, he reports from China as an American observer, with the same questions and frustrations that most Americans feel but without either the prejudices of some or the ideological pixilation of others. Sidney Rittenberg, Sr., coauthor of The Man Who Stayed Behind
 
Postcards from Tomorrow Square offers some wonderful snapshots of the contradictions of modern China. As always, Fallows writes from the front lines with insight and flair.   Rob Gifford, author of China Road
 
James Fallows s insatiable curiosity and clear narrative make his China journey a real reward.   John Sculley, former CEO of Apple Computer

Dettagli sul prodotto

• Autori: James Fallows
• Editore: Vintage USA
• Lingue: Inglese
• Formato: Tascabile
• Pubblicazione: 26.02.2013
• EAN: 9781400031276
• ISBN: 978-1-4000-3127-6
• Pagine: 288
• Dimensioni: 132 mm x 220 mm x 15 mm
• Serie: VINTAGE BOOKS; Vintage; Vintage
• Categoria: Scienze sociali, diritto, economia > Economia > Economia internazionale