Strategy&Future

“Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything.” Normally we might be inclined to ignore Steve Jobs’ sales patter but here, on 9th January 2007 unveiling the first-generation Apple iPhone, he was – as they say – on point.

In the 31st January 1907 edition of Le Matin, under the headline Paris-Pékin Automobile: Un défi prodigieux, there was a really remarkable story which looked set to define what we now think of as the first era of globalisation. And since 2006 happens to be the year that Google Translate was launched, it shouldn’t pose too many problems for S&F readers if we re-publish the original text here:

Opened in December 2005, the Donghai Bridge — connecting mainland Shanghai with a new deepwater container port on the islands of Yangshan in Hangzhou Bay 32.5km away — was not the world’s longest cross-water bridge. The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in New Orleans, completed in the 1960s, was longer. But Donghai (meaning East China Sea) Bridge was a very concrete symbol of China’s ambitions to dominate world trade.

Taipei 101 — named after its 101 floors — opened on 31st December 2004, having earlier in the year been recognised as the world’s tallest skyscraper at 509.2 m (spire), 449.2 m (roof height). Under President Chen Shui-bian of the nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), who was re-elected in March 2004 after a four-year term, the Republic of China (Taiwan) had begun to distance itself from the PRC.

“In Baghdad, the capital city, you will see street merchants selling exactly the same kind of pottery that their ancestors sold at the time of the Arabian Nights. Not far away, you will see great dams and modern refineries equal to the best you have seen in America. If you happen to be sent to the oil fields, you will discover miracles of modern engineering construction side by side with primitive refineries built 2,000 years ago and still in operation…

2001 had been amongst the most difficult years in America’s history and the world now waited to see how it would respond. It was Mitt Romney who most successfully captured the hoped-for spirit of resilience in his position as CEO of the organising committee of the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. Had he ever considered the possibility of a cancellation (a television interviewer asked)?

On 21st June 2001, a train set off from Yandi in the arid upland interior of Western Australia to the Port of Port Hedland 275 km away on the Indian Ocean. With 682 wagons, loaded with almost 100,000 tonnes of iron ore, it was both the longest and the heaviest train ever. At 850 million tonnes in 2001, global steel production had doubled since the mid-1960s, with China accounting for 20% of consumption even as it was just joining the World Trade Organisation. Over the next 10 years, the share of iron ore and concentrates (as a proportion of total exports from Australia to China) would jump from 15% to just under 60%.

The 21st century didn’t begin officially until 1st Jan 2001 but in the popular imagination, 2000 represented a new beginning: a new century, a new millennium. The collapse of the Soviet Union was now an increasingly distant point in the rear-view mirror.

Radek Pyffel has been one of Poland’s leading voices on China for several years. Here, in a wide-ranging discussion, we look at the history of Poland-China relations, prospects for liberal democracy in China, different international responses to the Coronavirus pandemic, and more.

In the far southwestern corner of England, overlooking the blue Atlantic and the green rolling hills of Penwith, there is a village of tiny grey stone cottages called St. Just, less than 10 km away from Land’s End and a short walk from Cape Cornwall. Behind the King’s Arms is the Anglican Parish Church, built in the 15th Century. Inside it, you’ll see stained glass windows and a large collection of old flags – the biggest of which is a White Ensign (a Cross of St. George with a Union Jack in the top left-hand corner). It belonged to HMS Revenge (pictured above), was flown during the Battle of Jutland (1916), and was presented to the church by Captain Russell Grenfell.

In the wild and wary aftermath of the Brexit revolution, many simply assumed that the UK would lose influence in the rest of the world. And perhaps it has. But in the current tug-of-war tussle between China and the US, the UK finds itself in an interesting and potentially decisive position.

When Alfred T. Mahan was prophesying the rise of China back in 1897 (https://strategyandfuture.org/en/mahans-next-100-years/), he talked about modern European civilisation having grown up “under the shadow of the Cross” and how – highlighting a contrast with East Asia – “agnosticism with Christian ages behind it is a very different thing from agnosticism which has never known Christianity.”