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The Asian side of the world - II

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Jean-François Sabouret

Foreword

Asia at the crossroads of concerns

Jean-François Sabouret

Texte intégral

1September 2014

2The focus remains forever and always on Asia; the abyssal Asia with its ancient sources and the present Asia that is conjuring the future and for the long term. The Pacific is an immense and violent region, from which typhoons originate and which shelters the constantly moving tectonic plates, relentlessly threatening islands and continents from powerful earthquakes and destructive tsunamis.

3It is a vision that is obsolete today, separating the study of Asia from that of the Pacific. Impossible, even dangerous, to separate these two entities under the pretext that one represents a region of ancient lands and the other, an “aqueous region”, fragile to unwritten and uncertain cultures.

4China is presented as the inhabited Middle Kingdom and is becoming a leading maritime power year after year, threatening American domination in this vast Pacific region. Is dying for islands claimed by neighbouring and opposition countries unthinkable nowadays? The powers of the sea and borderlines that pass in the Pacific Ocean are being redefined. The great powers of Asia, playing the “go” game of the sea, are placing their black and white pieces on the vast chessboard.

5However, China is not the only country of dynamism in Asia. The great economic, industrial and creative Asia is progressing forwards. Will the country come together or will it fall apart? Border, economic, industrial, religious and ideological complexes; the list is long of reasons of conflict. Nevertheless, the Asia of Confucian values of work and effort is a reality, a global effort, which despite various upheavals, is taking the world upwards.

6The Asia and Pacific Network (Imasie) illustrates, in its own way, the immensity of the task that is to be accomplished. Every month, the Network edits texts, known as its editorials, aimed at as many people as possible, not only at specialists of Asia, but also at those who wish to understand the reason for which this great economic and industrial machine that is North-East Asia, is leading the world in a dynamic momentum. This is reassuring for some and worrying for others.

7These editorials are “still frames” that show the diversity of skills possessed by France on this part of the world, but also all that remains to be addressed in depth. An editorial should be able to be produced every day. The task is immense and exciting as well. Asia and the Pacific are forging ties with other continents and making waves, exploiting new magnetic fields of economics, innovation, science and industry that are organising themselves around the major cities of Asia.

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