jay — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 08:19:09 +0000

Susan Shirk, of the University of California at San Diego, recently published a very insightful book that calls China a “fragile superpower.” “When I discuss it in America,” she told me, “people always ask, ‘What do you mean, fragile?’” When she discusses it here in China, “they always ask, ‘What do you mean, superpower?’” james fallows, the atlantic

Littering my desk are the products of China. USB ports and Canon cameras. China’s rise in the world is made on products which, as Fallows has pointed out before, involve neither design nor marketing. China can never be dismissed; but a nation in which 90% of its major cities are close to “out of water” is not a threat regardless of the missiles at its command. The real Chinese Revolution is just beginning.

I suspect we will be shocked and surprised as China shrugs off a century of corruption and economic idiocy. And we’ll adapt.

Strange sites on the net

jay — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 07:43:42 +0000

I have been looking around at various government initiatives undertaken to promote research and development. I ran across the Zhongguancun Science Park at the site of a Hong Kong investment bank. Of course I’d never heard of it. But it certainly gives a sense of the scope of the Chinese push into science, research and development:

The ZSC, established in 1998 and located in the Haidian District of Northwest Beijing, is the centerpiece of “China’s Silicon Valley.” It encompasses 200 square kilometers and is home to approximately 20,000 companies that have generated trillions of dollars in revenue. baron group

I’d want to double check that “trillions” number but 20,000 companies - that’s huge and largely under Western radar.

Jay Currie » China

Strange sites on the net