The Research and Development Society

Thursday 26 April 2007, 6.30pm
Foreign Press Association, 11 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AJ - map

Buy The Writing on the Wall from Waterstone's

The prevailing view of China is of an economic juggernaut set to make the 21st century its own. Will Hutton, chief executive of The Work Foundation, here and in his provocative and stimulating new book warns instead that China is running up against a set of daunting challenges from within that could well derail its rise and, in turn, deliver a crippling shock to the global economy. Britain, Europe and the US must recognise that they have a vital stake in assuring that collapse does not happen.

China's effect on our lives is reflected in our house prices, the inequality in our wages and the prices we pay in our shops. Yet China is burdened by a weak enterprise system, growing social protest and environmental degradation.

Hutton will show how the contradictions of an authoritarian state are fundamentally disabling and argues that if China is to complete the transition to capitalism upon which it has embarked, it has no choice but to embrace the mechanisms that make business and government accountable to people - from a free press to representative governance. This is a powerful warning that global peace and prosperity depend upon successful transition.

Copies of Will's book will be available for sale at the event, courtesy of The Pan Bookshop.

Will Hutton is chief executive of The Work Foundation, an independent, not for dividend research based consultancy which is the most influential voice on work, workplace and employment issues in Britain. Will began his career as a stockbroker and investment analyst, before working in BBC TV and radio as a producer and reporter. Prior to joining The Work Foundation, Will spent four years as editor in chief of the Observer and he continues to write a weekly column for the paper.

Will has written several best-selling economic books including The World We’re In, The State We’re In, The State to Come, The Stakeholding Society and On The Edge with Anthony Giddens. In addition, he won the Political Journalist of the Year award in 1993.

Other roles Will performs outside The Work Foundation include: Governor of the London School of Economics; Honorary Fellow, Mansfield College, Oxford; Visiting Professor, Manchester University Business School and Bristol University and is a member of the Scott Trust. He is also a Fellow of the Sunningdale Institute.

Will’s latest book, The Writing on the Wall: China and the West in the 21st Century, was published in the UK in January 2007 by Little, Brown. Read an extract from The Writing on the Wall at the BBC Newsnight website.