A Frothy Tale
China has been in the news again because it fired a ground-based ballistic missile to destroy an old weather satellite. Shock horror in the United States, which relies so heavily on satellites for surveillance and communications. No doubt real anxieties in Taiwan too. Whether we like it or not, the recent complete dominance of the United States globally is ebbing. It is not only in economic matters that the world is tilting eastwards.
China is full of contradictions. Hundreds of thousands of young Chinese are or have been educated in universities abroad, yet there you cannot get the BBC website, as China seeks to shut out internet sites it finds potentially or actually disagreeable. Yet the rapidly growing Chinese middle class is now beginning to realise that everything modishly Western and modern should be in context.
Walking around the Forbidden City last month I was surprised to see somebody drinking out of a Starbucks cup. It being cold, the thought of a cappuccino was pretty attractive, so we found the small and unobtrusive Starbucks outlet which was very crowded and active. Now hundreds of thousands of Chinese are emailing and blogging their alarm. The Forbidden City is simply wondrously unique. I cannot think what the equivalent here might be – selling Big Macs to visitors in Buckingham Palace?
The Chinese have torn down many old sites and buildings, but now are beginning to realise that their heritage is a precious one. Assuredly, as Chairman Mao might have observed, in this instance it is simply a cup too far.