Reith Lectures continued

Lecture 2, Survival in the Anthropocene (Reith Lectures) by Jeffrey Sachs is now online;

SUE LAWLEY: So Jeff, how important is greater democracy to China's development, in your view?

JEFFREY SACHS: I think that China will become more democratic over time, and I think that China will become, as I say, more decentralised over time as well. This is the nature of the developments taking place, and they're already apparent in this country. If one has any sense of change that's taking place, this is already happening, and it's happening to the good. And I really don't believe that outsiders coming and making simple claims really helps the process. I do believe that China's politics are for the Chinese people, and I believe that these changes will come, they will be in China's interest, they will be in the world's interest, but the way that the world should best handle this is to help China to achieve its goals and define global common points of meeting on global challenges like climate, like global security, because these are the ways that we can build trust, build understanding and build a framework where change can take place in a peaceful and useful way.