) n' z" \& V; X" O! V5 n7 s 8 m$ T3 t' i. c8 y( V0 I VAirports foretell the future! z/ _# O9 {) t' }3 A
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LONDON -- It is at airports that one can tell that most of East Asia is merging into one gigantic business and market entity, a crisscrossed latticework flow of people, goods, ideas, lifestyles, relationships -- of such size, speed and intensity that it is beyond the power of any governments to check or unravel it. 5 C( q; V; T4 [/ g8 z$ I! I, E5 @& _5 u5 Y
But wait, say the skeptics. Airports are not real life, they are not for ordinary people. They are for the moneyed classes, and anyway they are all the same. " R6 |$ s) @: K ' y# R+ X7 ?: j N& ~# N$ W2 wThat's the point. Sameness is winning over political standoffs, historic feuds, assertions of rivalry and cultural separatism. Stand in the biggest concourse in the newest airport in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taipei, Tokyo, Bangkok, Seoul and a few things become obvious.8 p0 D" c- k& Q
0 {0 b/ ~5 u' A; e* zFirst, these modern mega-palaces are very big and very crowded -- all the time. They are bigger and better organized by far with more facilities and more glitz than anything to be found in Europe or much of North America. - S0 ?$ M) {5 Z. l i X; m8 r9 [% ]
Second, they are not for the rich and the few; they are for the many. They are packed, as are the aircraft flying unceasingly between them with people of all income groups, all backgrounds and all walks of life. The airports of Asia now teem with the public, as the streets and shops of nearby cities do and as the railway stations did in days gone by. 6 r9 F h6 h3 k( j" a8 J' a! g y& C/ n: e( i3 S A
Families, students, business folk, shoppers, tourists, shop staff and assistants, messengers, tycoons and toddlers -- they are all there, and almost every one of them, even the kids, wired up with iPods, mobile phones and 3Gs, are all interconnected in a way that no official or regulation can control or break up., @ Y- g* O! J
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Third, while the long queues at Immigration and Passport Control, and the proliferation of security checks, temperature checks, hygiene checks, eye checks, fingerprint checks and anything else that can be invented, are reminders that politics and bureaucracy are ever present, once through these barriers the whole swirling throng melts into an unbounded sea of arcades and shopping malls, brand names and eateries, stretching and branching from gate to gate, from floor to floor, from escalator to escalator, from terminal to terminal. 7 V, T7 {3 q+ b- r0 c 0 d9 G" U% d- o! J+ G x) XOutside, in yesterday's world, politicians are arguing and international issues are being talked up as usual. China is threatening Taiwan -- again. Yet, aircraft between Taipei and Hong Kong carry more people than ever. * \* S. ]* B: |, B/ f2 ?" Y 2 ~" Q b4 G' h+ v6 [: ^2 MJapan and China have found something new to quarrel about, but the routes between Japanese and Chinese cities are filled to the last seat, as Japanese businessmen pour westward into their biggest export market and Chinese tourists pour eastward into the land of the rising sun. Its the new year and the whole of East Asia is on the move." a! s# R# P6 H2 H3 \# |- V
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But what about all the rising tensions and crises that fill the media? Read the papers and one would think the whole region was about to blow apart. Ministers fly between capitals and utter self-important statements. Officials draft communiques and slip in and out of each other's capitals for "talks." Military authorities strut around demanding more security, more hardware to prepare against this or that danger. - Q) I" s j l7 L- J3 q+ Q ) u1 Q8 Z+ |2 L8 }The Chinese are still building up their military forces opposite Taiwan; presumably ready, if things get out of hand, to strike at the great Taiwan-Mainland artery of investment and exchange that underpins the well-being of millions in both communities. That's hard to believe as one stands in the great airport throng. / G- A: f" Y0 u b$ L7 r2 L i1 S5 i% _- S# x# K
Up north, the "rogue" North Koreans have extracted various "concessions" from the reluctant Americans and Chinese, at last slightly worried at the crazy regime on their doorstep.8 u0 u$ T7 [8 |2 ^$ H
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What do the Asian millions who pack the airports and jet between the region's cities have to do with this? Nothing at all, except that they may reduce the chances of the crackpot Kim Jong Il firing a missile at Tokyo and, if all goes well, eventually ensure that soon the North Koreans will be free to join their southern compatriots in the same airport melee with still more shopping malls, more Bulgaris, more Pradas, more jewelry shops, more electronic gadget bazaars, more boutiques, more businesses spreading north to Pyongyang.4 S N/ a% f0 v' z
, o7 b+ J+ m4 M5 I; f' h c( zGovernments cannot stop this. The Soviets couldn't and not even can the North Koreans in the end. But they still have destructive power -- power to frighten, power to shut frontiers with rows of nervous-looking policemen and militias, power to promote international quarrels, dig up past feuds, create tense standoffs as exist in the Taiwan Strait or between China and Japan or any other regional player." q( r- g# d' P) i2 p! Y1 t
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But the political squabbling is becoming more and more of a sideshow while the air-linked, high-tech, mass consumer unity becomes the reality. People power has taken wing, government power is being dispersed. In East Asia, almost faster than anywhere else on Earth, it is trickling away from the hands of officialdom and governments, however much they still pretend otherwise and however much the public posturing goes on. 5 F0 a/ m+ P c- X6 Y5 R& l # P" d+ E# z8 B/ H2 `As the Year of the Pig begins, it is the packed airport concourses and gateways that tell the real new story. "La Commedia e Finita": the political show is nearly over and the airport show is taking off.+ K: g2 j# ~% c
% Y% V& {; y: z7 r7 iDavid Howell is a former British Cabinet minister and former chairman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee. He is now a member of the House of Lords.
