“Understanding how China got here, and what its motivations are, requires looking at history”
Writer and broadcaster MISHA GLENNY tells us about his new series on the forces and ideas that have shaped modern-day China
Your Invention of... series looks at how history has made nations what they are today. Why did you choose to focus on China in these latest episodes?
After 30 years of US domination, the last 15 years have seen the so-called multipolar world emerge. But within that multipolarity you have two great powers, with China now America’s main rival. There should be a third great power, Europe, but it’s not politically coherent enough to act in the way that both the US and China do.
China now plays a critical role in the global economy and global politics in a way it never has before, and understanding how it got here, and what its motivations are, requires looking at history.
How easy was it to record the series on location in China?
We couldn’t get to the Chinese mainland, but we went to Hong Kong. However, nobody there really wanted to talk to us, and we had to be careful.
We also paid a visit to Taiwan. Bomb shelters are signposted everywhere and the island faces the constant threat of invasion, but people get on with life. There was a much livelier social culture there overall.
How far back into Chinese history does the series go?
We begin the series in the third century BC, when the First Emperor [Qin Shi
Huang] defined what the initial contours of the new Chinese empire were going to be. Crucially, he also defined the structure of the Chinese state, aspects of which still survive today – especially when you look at how the bureaucracy runs, or the relationship between the centre and the provinces.
