ALJAZEERA – As isolationism is sweeping through the West, China is to become the unlikely champion of globalisation.
![Workers assemble mobile phones on a product line at a factory in Sichuan Province, China [Getty]](https://i0.wp.com/www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2016/12/11/1ee213531fd04a5eb37a90502181dd06_18.jpg "China: The vanguard of globalisation")
Workers assemble mobile phones on a product line at a factory in Sichuan Province, China [Getty]
Richard Javad Heydarian
Richard Javad Heydarian is a specialist in Asian geopolitical/economic affairs.
“Everything under heaven is in utter chaos; the situation is excellent,” Chairman Mao Zedong wrote in a letter to his wife on July 8, 1966. This was the height of the Cold War, as Moscow and Washington vied for global supremacy, and massive protests swept across the West, from Europe to the United States.
Crowds waved ‘We Are Indonesia’ signs and held a giant red-and-white national flag [Reute
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Jasmine Burton helped design an inexpensive, portable plastic toilet to address the lack of basic sanitation around the world
