An economy, powered by 1.3 billion industrious people, guided and motivated by an ambitious government with an excellent record of executing long term strategies, growing by a more or less double-digit rate year after year and determined to master all technologies and industries that for the last 250 years were the backbone of Western world domination.
Now, what could be scarier than that?
I tell you what.
Sitting in a plane that brings me yet again to Beijing, this time for the (re)opening ceremony of our new cargo station. I cannot help but think:
I am not scared of China. I do not worry about this extraordinary country becoming one of the dominant powers on our planet. I am not worried about a possible Chinese mega-carrier or more fierce competition in our markets. I am not even worried about acquisitions and takeovers that will sooner or later reshape our industry's topography.
All this is, well, just how it is and always will be. Power shifts, dominance falters, economies rise and fall. Those who adapt will cope with the inevitable changes. It is as simple as that.
What scares me more than anything China does is how scared many people in our industry are about it.
Warnings and lamentations are no substitute for finding new ways to cope with the changing situation. Rather than crying that China is a threat to the status quo (which it most certainly is), we are far better off seizing the opportunities offered to every one of us by the growing middle classes of the Middle Kingdom, with their exploding demand of goods and services the Western world is still very adept at delivering.
And if you are not convinced yet, try this:
Imagine the world economy without the Chinese powerhouse to keep it from deep-diving into a recession.
