Commentary
River of Trade Corridor: 21st Century Silk Corridor
Da Hsuan Feng
The University of Texas at Dallas
Keynote for the River of Trade Corridor Coalition International Quarterly Meeting
Windsor, Canada
June 14, 2007
The honorable Mayor Eddie Fisher of the City of Windsor, Canada, the honorable Dallas Councilmember Ron Natinsky, and distinguished colleagues, it is a great honor for me to speak at the River of Trade Corridor Coalition (ROTCC) international quarterly meeting in Windsor, Canada. I want to thank Mayor Fisher and his able staff members for hosting all of us with the well known Canadian graciousness and elegance.
I also want to thank Mayor Fisher for his truly elegant lunch keynote about the great Michigan-Ontario corridor. It is exciting to hear vision such as this from a political leader.
I would be remiss if I did not mention that Windsor to me means "Cantonese duck!" Let me explain. In 1972, after I received my Ph.D. and was on my way to Manchester England to take on a postdoctoral position. For one reason or another, my wife and I came to Windsor on our way to catch a flight in Toronto. We arrived late at night and were exceedingly hungry. The first restaurant we saw once we emerged from the tunnel from Detroit was a Chinese restaurant with "ducks" hanging from its window. The rest is of course history.
Trade corridor
We heard a great deal this morning and this afternoon about some of the formidable issues confronting River of Trade Corridor, albeit political, economical and technological. I have no doubt that with time, patience, focus, and collaborations, they will be solved. This reminded me of the creation of the European Union, which now has a single currency called Euros. Indeed, despite the deep divisions and profound animosities for centuries among the various components/nations in Europe, once everyone saw the overwhelming benefit at the 10,000 feet level, they were willing to sit down and work out the difficulties.
To me, ROTCC has the same flavor. Despite difficulties such as congestions, possible environmental degradation, despite the political divisions, despite the lack of funds to mitigate the "red light areas," such as the finite life times of roads, bridges and rails, the fact that at the 10,000 feet level, the benefit of having a robust ROTCC for all the regions involved is absolutely overwhelmingly positive, I am convinced that all difficulties can and will be ironed out. Indeed, the alternative is just too horrible to imagine!
So, allow me to say something about ROTCC at the 10,000 feet level.
Throughout history, trade route or trade corridor is the blood-line of intellectual and economic developments. When I was asked by the organizers to make a comment, I asked myself two fundamental questions: what can I say that experts in this business will think it is not all together trivial, and what can the media walk away with a sound-bite which they can mention to the person on the street.
Although we heard several times that ROTCC is about 3300 miles (5000 kms) long, in reality it is a lot longer then that. After all, if there is not mutual trade between North American with Asia and/or South America, ROTCC will cease to exist. So for this reason, allow me to say that on needs to think of ROTCC not just 3300 miles, but 10,000 miles (add the 7,000 miles from the Pacific and from South America.) Hence, with ROTCC's massive and global domain, it must be one of the most exciting trade route of the 21st century. Its potential successes in this century will create incredible wealth and intellectual capital for these three massive continents which house about 1/3 of the world's population. In reading about ROTCC, it immediately reminded me of another great trade corridor in history, and that is the ancient "silk corridor/route."
According to the modern encyclopedia the wikipedia, "….The Silk Road, or Silk Route, is an interconnected series of ancient trade routes through various regions of the Asian continent mainly connecting Chang'an (today's Xi'an) in China, with Asia Minor and the Mediterranean. It extends over 8,000 km (5,000 miles) on land and sea. Trade on the Silk Route was a significant factor in the development of the great civilizations of China, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, Indian subcontinent, and Rome, and helped to lay the foundations for the modern world…."
So, with this as background, it seems to me that the ROTCC will also help to lay the foundation for the 21st century world. Hence the best and most succinct way to describe ROTCC is to call it the "SILK CORRIDOR OF THE 21st CENTURY!"
The "Flat World"
Unlike the ancient silk corridor, modern silk corridor is embedded in a "flat world," as Thomas Friedman of New York Times would say. To me, "flatness" is more then just sending bit from point A to point B with the speed of light. It is how information via bits was sent, and how such information are comprehended at the receiving end!
Let me give you a couple of examples of how "unflat" the world was in the ancient world.
The first example is really spectacular. In 1054 AD, there was a brilliant celestial event known as the supernova explosion. This was the thermonuclear explosion of a star (our beloved Sun is such a star, for example) at the end of its life. The remnant of this explosion which can still be detected even today is what astronomers refer to as the "crab nebula."
While the science of the "crab" is profound, the sociology is even more interesting. As we now know, at the genesis when the star exploded, it was so brilliant that even during day time, one could see it. How do we know that today? Well, it was because some Chinese astronomers recorded the event in written form. What is really curious is that since it was so bright, it must have been seen from all corners of the globe. Yet for what ever sociological and/or religious reason or reasons, not a single word was recorded in the western world about the event. I find it especially intriguing because this could not possibly due to ignorance since one of the premier universities of the world, even to this day, Oxford University, was created in 1096, which was only a few years after the "crab". This was clearly a case of the world not being flat.
The second example is the spectacular change of man's thinking due to modern scientific methodology of the Renaissance period. To me, one of the great champions of modern science is undoubtedly Sir Isaac Newton. Interestingly, Newton was born in 1642. Two years later, 1644, the last dynasty of China, Qing, was established. The divergence in the growth of science and technology, indeed the modern way of life, between the East and the West from the 17th century until end of the Qing Dynasty in 1911 cannot be more pronounce. While the West grew with great thought leaders like Newton and Maxwell and the likes, the East essentially drown in scientific ignorance. In fact, despite the fact that East in the 11th was leading in science and technology (in fact, besides recording the supernova event, it was also when paper money was used for the first time in human history), by the beginning of the 20th century, the disparity between East and the West cannot be more pronounced. Once again, all this was due to the fact that the world was not flat!
Indeed, it took nearly a century, namely the entire span of 20th century, for Asia Pacific to emerge with scientific and technologic strengths, and together with these strengths, economic strengths as well. In fact, if one goes to visit some of the high-tech centers in Asia such as Hsinchu, Shenzhen and Seoul, the emergence of Asia as scientific, technological and entrepreneurial powerhouses will stare you in the face. Today, it will be to the detriment of North American if this fact is not recognized.
To me ROTCC is clearly one manifestation of this recognition. This is why to me that "it is a no-brainer" that ROTCC is so important.
20th century North America
Ladies and Gentlemen, the best analogy 20th century North America is to view it as a castle, with a deep and wide moat known as "Atlantic Ocean" and "Pacific Ocean." The moat allowed North America to grow, and grow it did, spectacularly, for nearly a hundred years.
The moat allowed North America to be totally untouched by World War I.
The moat allowed North America to be nearly untouched by World War II. I used the word "nearly" very carefully because a little piece of the United States called "Hawaii" was attacked by the Japanese Air Force on December 7, 1941. So why did the Japanese Air Force not attack San Francisco? It was because the range of the "zeros" and the Aircraft Carriers carrying them could not possibly get close enough to the California coast and without being detected. Once again, the moat protected in a very obvious manner the castle!
The moat also allowed North America, especially United States, to be a stable oasis for the world. With this stability, and with stable governments as well as public policies, North America became a Mecca to attract millions of the best minds in Europe first and later from Asia to come to build North American's intellectual and economic strengths.
However, there are negatives.
The most glaring negative, in my mind, is that it created a deep sense of security. When this sense of security is stretched to its limit, it could become, and often it did become a sense of isolationism. Indeed, in the first half of the 20th century, when Europe and Asia were in utter chaos, and technology was not mature enough (such as the zeros not flying far enough,) North American isolationism was an acceptable modus operandi. In the 2nd half of the 20th century, isolationism was beginning to show its weakness.
By the end of the 20th century, and for sure in the 21st century, when the internet completely changed the world so remarkably, with air transportation becoming so common between North America and Asia and South America, and of course Europe as well, isolationism can no longer be acceptable.
Let me give you a truly mesmerizing scenario of the "unflatness" of the world. As you know, one of the most unfortunate "byproduct" of better quality of living among modern societies is the rapid increase in breast cancer incidents. It is also true that this is one form of cancer which most likely can be cured, if and only if it was detected earlier enough! To this end, one of the most advanced technologies is an Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or MRI system created by Aurora Imaging Technology Inc. This system can literally take precise and clear picture of the interior of both breasts at the same time, all the way back to the chest wall. All this is done by digital visualization. Now imaging the following scenario, a woman's breasts image was taken in Taiwan and in real time is read by a radiologists in Brigham – Women's Hospital in Harvard. Of course, the vice versa can also be true. If this is not an excellent manifestation of the flat world, I don't know what can be!
ROTCC is in fact another excellent way to challenge the concept of isolationism. This means that not only ROTCC is an important economic and intellectual engines, it also integrates North America with the Globe!
Michigan-Ontario Corridor
Since I am in Windsor, let me say a few words about the City, and the Michigan-Ontario corridor.
From the diagram of ROTCC, Windsor is at the receiving end of the Corridor. This is certainly putting an incredible pressure on the infrastructure of the city. I am excited to hear the talk by Mayor Francis that just as all points along the River of Trade Corridor, Windsor is ready and willing to face up to the onslaught.
In preparing this talk, and surfing the web, I was a little disheartened by the fact that I cannot find a map which has Michigan and Ontario together. I suspect that maybe psychologically, because Michigan and Ontario belong to two countries, people in these two regions still do not think of themselves belonging to the same corridor.
Let me give you a blue sky thinking of this region here. Quite recently, a fantastic collaboration was established between the three great universities in the East Lansing – Detroit corridor, namely Michigan State University in East Lansing, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and Wayne State University in Detroit. This is a collaboration of three top universities in the United States which combined bring in at least $2 billion of research funding annually.
Imagine what can happen if the collaboration extends into the Windsor – Toronto corridor. In my mind, because of some of the most powerful universities in Canada are in this corridor, such as University of Toronto, McMaster University, Waterloo University, University of Western Ontario and of course University of Windsor, all lie on this corridor.
To me, it is formidable to imagine of the intellectual and economic power of the East Lansing – Toronto corridor.
Detroit-Windsor: 21st century New York City?
Ever since North America was discovered, especially after United States became a sovereign country, New York City became the heart of the Boston – Washington DC corridor. One of the reasons was of course due to the heavy trade from Europe pumping into NYC for two decades. I often say that if NYC was suddenly taken out from the Boston – Washington DC corridor, it would be the same as poking a well blown-up balloon with a pin!
Now look at Detroit-Windsor as a joint city. This is one of the ends of ROTCC. What will happen if ROTCC becomes very successful in the next two to three decades. Well, just as NYC was fed by European trade, Detroit-Windsor will be fed by the massive Asian and South American trade. Thus it is conceivable that Detroit-Windsor can and will be the New York City of the 21st century of the Lansing – Toronto corridor!
Is Detroit-Windsor ready for this eventuality?
Summary
- A Trade corridor can stimulate economic and intellectual vitality.
- A trade corridor of the 21st century will be the result of KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY!
- ROTCC can be the 21st century SILK Corridor
