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East Asia has prospered since the end of the Vietnam War, and Northeast Asia has prospered since the end of the Korean War in a way that seems unimaginable when you think of the history of the first half of the century.

It will take a long time, and certainly the West will remain the dominant civilization well into the next century, but the decline is occurring.

Now, I know it's a widespread assumption in the West that as countries modernize, they also westernize. This is an illusion. It's an assumption that modernity is a product simply of competition, markets and technology. It is not. It is also shaped equally by history and culture. China is not like the West, and it will not become like the West.

Especially in the West, people want to understand Asia on a deeper level because it's become the engine of the world economy, like it or not.

China is the big economic engine in Asia, so what happens is, as China growth expands, these countries in the periphery of China, whether it be Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, they end up growing with China because they become big exporters.

The fact of the matter is that instead of going around the world and haranguing countries for engaging with China, the West should be encouraging its own businesses to trade and invest in these regions.

We've had science fiction novels where China is dominant; we've had novels where India is dominant, and I suppose it's all about getting away from that cliched old tired idea that the future belongs to the West.

I think a major cause of present Asian economic difficulties that mainly come from, you know, lack of market economy.

In the latter half of the last century the impact of the expanding influence of Western culture and economic system brought about in China a severe conflict.

In a finite world this means that the per capita share of the world's goods must steadily decrease.