Rethinking Asia


What is it like to be taken over by a Chinese firm? Executives, speaking to The Economist tell of hungry decisiveness, followed by strange opacity: who is in charge, what really do they want? When Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s dignified opposition leader, was released from house arrest after 15 odd years, on and off, she spoke of using a mobile phone for the very first time (‘It felt very inadequate to me;, she said: ‘It was so small’). Her ignorance of one of the basic tools of modern life gave a small insight into her long and unjust imprisonment.

Therein two views of Asia. The anxious: ‘They are predatory—what do they want’? And the superior: ‘They do what we would not’ (never mind cases of unjust imprisonment closer to home). As any tourist will tell you, who has signed up to wander the foothills of the Himalayas, or trek through villages in Northern Thailand to see ‘how they really live’, Asia (or ‘The East’) exemplifies the unknown, a place where—by rubbing up against the curious and the unfamiliar—we might discover something about ourselves.




But the balance of power is shifting. It is all about power after all. Marco Polo—the world’s first travel writer—understood that. He was a merchant, first, and the riches he describes with such relish were all there to be traded, or taken: ‘The province produces plenty of camlets and other cloths of gold, silk, and fustian, and many sorts of spice that were never seen in our country…’