The Paradox of China - 2

China's period of global exploration ceased abruptly with the death of Yong Le in 1424; and after that the country 'turned in on itself'. Niall Ferguson teases out the irony that the most globalized economy today was the least globalized then; and draws a few interesting conclusions about the need for a civilization to keep moving and to remain nourished by contributions from outside. He ends his talk poised heroically on a crane in a Beijing shipyard. There could be no better symbol of a nation's plans for expansion than this. He does not draw the moral, but it is obvious, at this moment, to reflect that the shipyards of Great Britain have long since fallen silent. With both his huge appreciation of the British Empire and his Glaswegian roots, Niall Ferguson - this most interesting of contemporary historians - makes that last poignant point almost by telepathy...