The Last Emperor

I am back from a two-week trip to Beijing, China. I took this picture of "Little Buda" right by the northern entrance of the huge Forbidden City, after asking for permission to the kid's grandad. He could perfectly be featuring a sort of Last Emperor character. Fortunately, the kind of China he will meet in the near future has nothing to do with that of the beginning of the twentieth century. The new China, which is not a sleeping giant anymore but a threatening reality, is a powerful society leading
the world economy, including that of the United States (in which China plays the role of sustaining US public debt).
China has not only a promising future but a fascinating and terrific present. Chinese work 24/7 in reshaping the country, import technology from Japan, US or the EU (do we still have some technology to export?), and its companies (Lenovo, Haier, China Air) drive the growth of the economy. In addition, a sort of pride emerges again in China to make their ancient civilisation and traditions more notorious among the western world. Definitely, our future will be Chinese or won't be.

The two girls in the second picture, who work in a fashion store in the district of Xidan, are fully aware of this new Chinese pride. Their smile symbolises the present of a powerful nation.

I guess that the key to the success of China in the following years will be its capacity to manage the growth, avoiding military tensions with the US and the neighbours (Japan, North Korea, roommate Taiwan). The temptation of looking for a sort of Lebensraum formula is too easy. And the possibility of annoying other countries (US, Japan) for overtaking their economic role in the world is too plausible. So China, in both fields, military and economy, will need the same kind of empathy showed by the three Beijingers appearing in this post.