The global empire

"Though tourists know Xian for its army of terracotta warriors, the capital of Shaanxi province is quietly becoming one of China's most modern cities. Xian is the birthplace of the nation's space programme, its aircraft-construction hub and home to one of China's biggest technology parks—a 35-square-kilometre Chinese Silicon Valley housing 7,500 companies and supported by more than 100 universities that churn out 120,000 graduates a year, half in computer sciences alone. And that is just the start. The Xian High-Tech Industries Development Zone will eventually span 90 square kilometres at a cost of 100 billion yuan ($12 billion), says Jing Junhai, its director. " (The Economist, Special report - Outsourcing to China, Watch out, India May 4th 2006)

3006, which empire is dominating? What language are we speaking? And which currency are we using? Smart money is on China, but not on Chinese, nor on yuans. In 3006, globalization has created the first empire that does not own the language and the currency that make the world tick. Of course, in 3006, we have re-interpreted human history as a long development from the old Chinese empire to the new one. In between, Rome, London and Washington are seen as empire-bridges. Bruxelles never made it to the top list and has long been forgotten. The Middle-East is not a problem, because under its sand there is now only more sand. In the global empire, educated people are all bilingual, but, for the first time in history, this is an "eccentric" bilingualism. There are those who speak their vernacular dialects (say French) and an international version of English (call it Inghlish); and there are others who can speak Inglish and some version of Chinese (call it Mindarin). But Mindarin is not, contrary to Latin and English, the language used to rule, although it is the rulers' language. In 3006, you don't have to speak Mindarin to belong to the elite. You may still be part of the ruling class or of the intelligentsia by speaking Inglish. And you don't pay in any country's currency, but in deys (dollar-euro-yuans). Deys are controlled by the World Bank. Most of the added value in the world is generated by people living in a country which does not control the world's currency. The real empire, in 3006, is not China, but a horizontal class that speaks Inglish, pays with credit cards in deys, has no real location but occupies key places. Are we there yet?