In the course of packing up my old flat (moving is such a pain, isn't it?) I come across an old article I tore out from The Economist. A pity that the archives of this often-useful publication aren't online. Anyway, I thought I'd share a bit from "The view from 36,000 feet" (18 November 2006), an article about the perspective on global affairs held by Fred Smith, CEO of FedEx:
Mr Smith... remains exceedingly bullish about China, where FedEx has been operating for 22 years. It is in the final stages of buying out the local Chinese joint-venture partner that was foisted on it by the government. This will give FedEx the "freedom to expand the business as the market demands." It is about to move into a massive new base at Guangzhou's Baiyun airport. The Chinese government has been extremely clever in its design of its logistical infrastructure, putting all its new airports "in the right place", says Smith, who nonetheless seems queasy about the means to that end. "They moved whole villages", he says, noting the impossibility of doing likewise in India: "There are 250,000 squatters living around Mumbai airport - you couldn't expand it under any circumstances." The infrastructure challenges facing India are the main reason why Mr Smith, despite seeing growth opportunities there, thinks China has the greater promise."
And there you have, from one perspective, optimism about China - not despite, but because of the government's authoritarian, centralised capabilities. It made me uncomfortable, which I suppose is why I kept the article. Thought-provoking, no?
(Note: 250,000 squatters - that's more than the population of Nottingham)
(Disclaimer - I wrote "Mumbai" as it's in a quote, not because that's what I call Bombay - since (1) I gather that the latter is in fact more in use in India and, in any case, I don't call Munich Munchen or Rome Roma etcetera... do you?)
