‘중국’이라는 존재만큼 한민족의 유전자에 오랫동안, 그리고 또렷하게 새겨진 화두(話頭)는 없다. 어떻게 하면 거대한 중국에 흡수되지 않고 평화롭게 살아가느냐는 문제는 당(唐)의 100만 대군과 맞닥뜨린 고구려의 연개소문에서부터 중공군의 참전으로 다시 서울을 빼앗긴 이승만에 이르기까지 우리 옛 지도자들이 당면했던 난제(難題)였다. 그리고 이 화두는 TV와 자동차를 한대라도 더 팔기 위해 “니 하오”를 외치는 오늘날의 한국 기업인이나 북핵·천안함·한미 연합훈련 등에서 중국의 태도를 살피는 정부에도 똑같이 유효하다.
미·일의 부상보다 충격적인 중국 중심의 세계질서 재편 “21세기식 조공체제 부활로 국제사회 오히려 안정될것”
‘현대 경제사는 1978년을 분수령으로 하여 중국이 등장하기 전의 경제사(BC: Before China)와 중국 등장 이후의 경제사(AC: After China)로 구분해야 한다.’
1870년 미국이 경제 도약을 시작했을 때 미국 인구는 4000만이었고 성숙기에 들어선 1913년에는 9800만이었다. 일본이 한국전쟁을 계기로 경제 도약을 시작한 1950년 당시 인구는 8400만, 1973년엔 1억900만이었다. 이에 비해 개혁개방으로 도약을 시작한 1978년 당시 중국 인구는 9억6300만, 경제개발계획이 끝나는 2020년의 예상 인구는 14억. 경제도약 시작 시점 인구는 중국이 미국의 24배, 일본의 11.5배였고 2020년 인구는 1913년 미국 인구의 14배, 1973년 일본 인구의 13배로 추산된다. 미국 투자은행 골드만삭스는 2027년에 중국은 국내총생산(GDP) 규모에서 미국을 추월할 것으로 내다봤다. 이 압도적인 인구와 미국보다 더 넓은 광대한 영토, 한국 등 동아시아 ‘호랑이’들을 능가하는 빠른 성장속도를 지닌 중국 경제가 세계 경제에 가할 충격효과는 그야말로 전례없는 것일 수 있다.
I was booked to give a China talk in August, high season in the Hamptons, as part of the summer series at the Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton.
You never know who’s going to show up for these well-attended sessions – Southampton summer residents number everybody from Henry Kissinger to George Soros to Madonna, who made headlines this season when she plunked down $500k to rent a place for just one month. (Well, it was beachfront.)
I decided to title the talk “Five Things Americans Need to Know about China – Now.” And then, since the venue was a library, I tacked on “… and Six Books that Will Deepen Your Knowledge.” My plan was to scour my dusty shelves for a half-dozen China books I had read – whether months ago or years ago didn’t make any difference, but to make the cut the books had to have lingered in my mind, which can be a difficult task for any book. So of course I spent a lot of beach time rereading the lot. Here they are in the order I mentioned them in my talk:
In days of yore when it was believed the Earth was the center of the Universe, it was a harsh reality when we learned we were only one of many planets that circled the sun. Today, the same could be said for the U.S. and Americans’ belief that we generate more interaction on social media channels than the rest of the world.
Fact is, while the U.S. is one of the world’s top Twitter nations garnering 25 percent of the world’s tweets, it falls significantly below Asia as a region. According to a recent Semiocast study, users in Asia, mainly located in Japan, Indonesia and South Korea account for 37 percent of all tweets out of 2.9 million messages tracked. And while Asia is showing growth from March to June in 2010, North America as an aggregate is declining.
尖閣諸島の事件をめぐる議論はすごい盛り上がりを見せ、「日比谷焼き討ち事件」のころもかくやと思わせる。私も今回の政府の対応はまずかったと思うが、中国の強硬姿勢がかつてなく激越で、しかも矢継ぎ早だったのは政府も予想外だったのではないか。これは国内問題の「ガス抜き」という面もあろうが、世界に対して「アジアのルールはわれわれが作る」ということを示す意味もあったと思う。本書はイギリスのジャーナリストが書いたもので、タイトルはいささかセンセーショナルだが、内容はまじめなものだ。今回の事件との関連でおもしろいのは、中国が西洋世界の「法の支配」に挑戦しているという話だ。通説では、西洋が近代化によって中国を追い抜いたのは、財産権や契約などのガバナンスがしっかりしていいて市場や株式会社などの人的関係に依存しない組織ができたからで、中国も成熟すれば西洋化すると西洋人は考えているが、著者はこれに異を唱える。
IRVINE, CALIFORNIA – China’s government has been using unusually strong language of late to assert its sovereignty over disputed stretches of international waters near to its shores. This has led to a ratcheting up of tensions, in particular between China and the United States, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stressing that the Obama administration is now ready to step in and help ensure the fair adjudication of disputes relating to the South China Sea. Chinese spokesmen denounced this as a throwback to the days when America thought it could, and should, try to “contain” the People’s Republic.
A new dictionary, out from Oxford University Press, incorporates some very earthy Chinese slang expressions and new words, including some that you can’t invoke without having to rinse your mouth out with soap
(Now, you’re dying to know what they are, aren’t you?)
Although these street-talk words (among other more socially acceptable words) only made it to the parallel universe of the Oxford English-Chinese, Chinese-English dictionary — not the more definitive Oxford English Dictionary — it has set off a frisson of etymological excitement among folks in China. Some see it as the beginning of a lexicographic lead-in to a world that will, progressively, speak Chinese — and in countless other ways be ‘Sinified’ by Chinese soft-power influences.
There is no knowing whether an editorial in the People’s Daily on Friday that for all intents and purposes removed the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) as the principal defender of China against Japanese invasion during World War II was simply out-of-control Chinese nationalism, or a more sinister attempt to blur the lines in the Taiwan Strait
For years now, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda has played down the KMT’s role in the war of resistance and elevated that of the communists to one that defies the historical record, a form of revisionism that, sadly, continues to be swallowed and reproduced by a number of Western academics, one of the latest being Martin Jacques in his influential book When China Rules the World.
As according to the Burmese astrological date after Nov. 17th the Junta’s faux pas will become a fait accompli while the civilized international community looked on with folded arms.
The crux of the Burmese struggle is the inconceivable difference between Burma’s diverse ethnic nationalities, label as separatist and that of the pro-democracy forces that are unable to accept the ethnic nationalities as equals, in their obsession to overthrow the illegitimate regime. Their respective local leaders, by their actions, have chosen to live under the tyrannical regime rather than compromise their belief with their brethren. If they have been united the Junta would have been overthrown long ago, now the Jean is out of the bottle and is threatening everybody within its reach.