Why China Matters
Virtual China Forum: Oct 8, 1999
Esther Dyson, Michel Oksenberg, John Holden, Jan Morris, Jonathan Pollack, Andy Neusner, Scott Savitt, Edward Steinfeld, George Koo, Josephine Khu, Leslie Stone, Yasheng Huang, Nick Driver, and Doug Guthrie.
A positive, friendly, and communicative relationship between China and the West is an absolute precondition for both environmental and geopolitical stability in the 21st century.
Virtual China is about using the Internet to draw China and the West closer together by overcoming the most difficult barriers to communication -- barriers of language, physical distance, and culture.
Is that a realistic goal? Are there pitfalls to be avoided? Are we even correct in assuming, as we do, that when tens of millions of Chinese pour onto the Internet over the next five years it will thoroughly change the world in a wondrous but also possibly perilous way?
To find answers, we asked a distinguished group of men and women from many fields -- business, finance, diplomacy, technology, the arts, journalism and academe -- to contribute their thoughts to the first Virtual China Forum. We asked each contributor these questions:
BY 2010 THERE WILL BE MORE PEOPLE ON THE INTERNET IN CHINA THAN IN THE
UNITED STATES. HOW HAS, OR WILL, THE INTERNET CHANGE CHINA AND ITS RELATIONS
WITH THE REST OF THE WORLD? HOW MIGHT THE CHINESE CHANGE THE INTERNET ITSELF?
"The Internet will draw many Chinese people closer to the rest of the world, not into a global village but into communities of botanists, music-lovers, fans of George Orwell, stamp collectors, hemophiliacs."
Esther Dyson
Author, Release 2.0: A Design for Living in the Digital Age
Chairman, EDventure Holdings
"Americans of prominence can expect to be deluged with requests for information from thousands of Chinese in the years ahead."
Michel Oksenberg
Senior Fellow and Professor
Stanford University, Asia/Pacific Research Center
"The Internet will undoubtedly hasten the global predominance of Chinese capitalism."
Jan Morris
Author, Hong Kong: Epilogue to an Empire
"Internet commerce will allow smaller and nimble upstarts to unseat the entrenched positions of the state-owned firms at the top of the pecking order."
Yasheng Huang
Associate Professor, Harvard University, Graduate School of Business Administration
Author, Inflation and Investment Controls in China
"The Internet will facilitate more direct commerce between Chinese and foreign buyers and sellers, reducing middleman costs and increasing business opportunities."
John Holden
President, National Committee on U.S. China Relations
Former CEO of Cargill, China
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