Technology War

[Hsuan-chu (Chloe) Lee]

    “ Years and years ago, Chinese invented three things- fireworks, compass, printing and paper. Years and years later, when western countries set off rockets to the space, we are still setting off fireworks! “ My favorite professor once pointed out a fact in a teasing way and the students, including me, laughed aloud. 
    My professor was right. The eastern technology used to be dominant for centuries before the industry revolution in 18th century. When the western countries were still in the manor system, the Chinese empire, Yuan Dynasty (13th century), could expand its power across three continents, Asia, Europe and Africa. It is also hard to believe that during the time, western countries needed to assign ambassadors to “worship” Chinese emperors. Since China is such a giant country with lots of resources to be self-sufficiency, she did not need to rely on someone else. On the contrary, the neighbors, even farer countries always needed something from China, the silk, China, tea and some spices.
    For the decades, which is the most crucial period for international competition, China isolated herself from others, immersing in an unrealistic fantasy that she was still the super power around the globe. Actually, the Chinese name for China is中國 (Zhōng guó), literally means the country of the center. The way of thinking is one of the reasons that prevented China from making progress in the technology industry.
    Then the industry revolution rewrites the whole history of the world. The western countries opened the Asian market by force- the undefeatable weapons blew Asians’ mind. They were shocked, “How can these barbarians beat us up?!” Japan is the first country to wake up and starts the modernization movement, following examples from western countries. Later, Japan was the most developed country in Asia and the second biggest economy in the world.
    It takes such a long time for China and other Asian countries to catch up. Nowadays, the world cannot underestimate the Asian market. They want capitals, labors and nature resources from Asia. It sounds really promising , but there is something missing here- the technology .
Except for Japan that already creates a good image about herself, the idea about the modern technology is all from the West. What is the actual value for Asian countries? The global customers are crazy about buying Apple, driving BMW, wearing Gucci and using Google and Facebook. When it comes to similar products from Asia , no matter how good they are, they are all “duplicates.”
    In this 21st century, the technology speaks louder than anything. Samsung, HTC LG, Asus and Acer are trying hard to gain a foothold here. Eventually, we Asians have to look at a bigger picture, and ask ourselves, “How should we recreate our value or make an extract value from our products in the global competition? ”

[Hsuan-chu (Chloe) Lee]

I am so glad that I can share something I know and learn something from Europeans! Kiitos for your comment!

[Helge Keitel]

Europeans tend to think that the industrial revolution changed everything in the favor of the old continent. But we're not really understanding history. America did become the world leader after the second world war. They imagined and wanted to control and police the globe. Mistake again.

Asia has been rising for a long time and gaining more power: Asia is representing the power of people!

We Finns thought that we're the world leader in mobile technology. Then came Apple and Google's Android. We Finns are now learning a hard lesson about the power of software and the importance of Internet. Finland was a leading country in the field of digitalization 1995. Now many third world countries are doing better than we are.

Today Nokia decided to layoff 10 000 people globally and 3 700 of them from Finland. Most of the employees are well educated. This was not supposed to happen.

The Euro is weak. Europe is in the center of crisis that takes years and years to solve. We European's don't understand the world. We live in the history and don't grasp the realities of globalization.  Hsuen-Chu, teach us more about Asia!