在机场，人们可以说出东亚的大部分正合并成一个巨大的商业和市场实体，纵横交错的人流、货物流、意识流、生活方式和关系——其规模、速度和强烈程度让任何政府无法制衡或推翻它。 ! S6 t& r/ b6 `4 Z1 U; `1 Q 0 ~. [8 }- J! t @. J8 y 但怀疑论者会说：“慢着。”机场不是真实的生活，它们不是为普通人而设的。它们是为富裕的阶层而设，而且他们都是一样的。$ ?3 J; a9 c0 }$ d+ W2 H
5 y& q8 b3 N0 h" Q( I 这就是问题所在。一致性胜过了政治僵局、历史争执、敌对主张和文化分离。站在香港、上海、台北、东京、曼谷、首尔的最新机场的大堂，一些事情变得显而易见。 * G4 d2 R8 [ f( g' {, M1 s2 @- _& w3 ^0 H( V# x/ U
首先，这些现代的宫殿非常大非常拥挤，而且总是这样。它们比欧洲和北美的多数机场拥有更大更好的设施。 " ^- X# u. O/ Y/ @5 a3 p# J" g/ {9 ^3 ^8 o( A; I
第二，它们并非为有钱人和少数人而设的；它们是为许多人而设的。它们塞满了人，飞机在各种收入、各种背景和各行各业的人们之间往返。亚洲的机场如今充满了普罗大众，如同临近城市的街道和商店，如同昔日的火车站。9 |* [+ b9 {4 o& X& [. ~: o( Q
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家人、学生、商务人士、购物者、旅游者、店员、助手们、信使们、大亨们以及初学步的孩子——他们都在那里，而且几乎每个人，包括孩子们，都带着iPod、手机等，这些互联方式是任何官员或规定都不能控制或打破的。" O i1 o1 [2 `$ N
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第三，护照检查处排长龙，安检、体温检查、卫生检查、眼睛检查、指纹检查以及任何可以想得出来的检查在增加，提醒人们政治和官僚的存在，但一旦穿过这些障碍，人群的涡流就融入购物中心、品牌和餐馆的海洋，从大门蔓延到大门，从一层蔓延到另一层，从电梯蔓延到电梯，从端口蔓延到端口。5 O5 k: n f4 m7 O1 `2 N9 e
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外面，在昨日的世界里，政治家在争执，国际问题如常谈判。中国再次威胁台湾。然而，台北和香港之间的飞机运载甚至更多的乘客。 9 W/ \" ]* w6 A# m; k* T& `1 m% J [& J1 K E
日本与中国已经找到一些新的吵架话题，但日本和中国城市之间的航线爆满，日本商人向西涌向他们最大的出口市场，中国游客向东涌向日出之国。这是新年，整个东亚在运动。( V' R" a+ P5 W0 j- R2 x$ g, a5 l: v
0 N7 L; @/ @8 j$ f% B, y 但媒体上充斥的紧张和危机呢？读读报纸，人们会认为这整块地区将要分裂。大臣们在首都之间飞来飞去，发出妄自尊大的声明。官方起草公报，在各个首都“讲话”。军方大摇大摆地要求更多的安全，更多的硬件，以为这样或那样的危险作准备。 , w0 J, m/ O% t' D' N) y9 _6 ]8 v# }9 \- ]0 C
中国人仍然在集结对付台湾的军事力量；如果事情超出控制，大概会打击给双方带来福祉的投资和交流动脉。当人们站在大机场时难以相信以上的话。 1 J2 @0 M) s+ x$ m( [0 o7 Z- [1 f0 _+ J" o& N3 K/ R" ?* s3 L- c
在北方，“流氓”朝鲜从不情愿的美国人那里获得了各种“让步”，而中国人终于轻微担忧他们门阶处的疯狂政权。! [- p0 K, U# v1 y$ z1 h$ V+ o
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充斥机场和飞机的数百万亚洲人要对此采取什么行动吗？根本不用，他们可以降低金正日向东京发射导弹的可能性，如果一切顺利，最终将确保朝鲜人会很快自由，和他们南方的同胞一样站在同样的机场，会有更多的购物中心、更多的珠宝店、更多的电子集市、更多的流行服装店和商业蔓延到平壤。0 D9 X* T8 V t2 D
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政府制止不了这些。苏联不能，朝鲜最终也不能。但它们仍然拥有杀伤性力量——让人恐惧的力量，以神色紧张的警察和民兵封锁边境的力量，挑起国际争端的力量，挖出过去的仇恨，制造台海或日本及其他地区势力之间的紧张僵局。 & Z! ~- c' T6 A" k6 {2 p 5 U9 A7 \+ C1 I. x* M$ L 但随着空中的连接、高技术、大众消费成为现实，政治的反目变得越来越不重要。人民的力量在起飞，政府的力量在下降。在东亚，这种情况发展得比地球上任何其他地方都要快。! J! b4 a% C7 \7 m$ b
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随着猪年开始，拥挤得机场大厅和通道道出了真正的新闻故事。“喜剧到此结束（La Commedia e Finita）”：政治秀将近完结，机场秀正在起飞。 ' h9 V/ s2 I: o! K4 N* D7 Q+ P1 X) l& R2 C$ Z- V5 s
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Friday, Feb. 23, 2007) a, e. }) k# d0 y
3 e2 m$ U* r( x' } 1 o% z5 ^! z5 D) G3 F; n: O& I8 i% Q F8 uAirports foretell the future7 l, ~' |# i- T2 D0 Z4 M
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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.1 _, i% B! x5 `
R# ?( A" T1 k2 S0 _/ i- m' Q4 X" GBut 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.+ k1 L# \8 H8 B$ \8 v6 Y
# W. P8 @& @% i3 x' ]That'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. 3 T6 D% k% S; I* t- l. [. [5 q- a) U q: [& O
First, 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. H& L- u( O8 m7 A7 O* E 5 M9 r0 o( U2 M) W& O1 a. H1 h OSecond, 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. , v- Z0 l _& U) e2 h/ U, J4 u* x* M* R ^; {% K$ m4 n
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.1 C7 W1 p# n0 e. P% r. A
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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. " ~# ?; l- @$ [; X8 j8 D " W5 {! M5 G' C X( ?Outside, 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.$ _, ?) |6 I4 c: o4 e
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Japan 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. . ?0 Y1 x: p# P* [; w+ R; _0 C ! x- f8 J }; k* s$ T% ~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.5 `" u9 m9 T; Z( n2 H3 ` Y( u
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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.& _5 L$ D/ I8 I2 r) v" [! \9 j
~: F% X: u2 v& r0 C' a( e; m ]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.9 ]" H x" f' r O# U2 a
* s) f7 Y! _& s7 ^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.1 V0 t! i# [; A
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Governments 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.. j' K* J/ k% `: d! 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.+ X. K( r/ S7 I. j- @
' i, T3 \! c. T% q* J3 K/ IAs 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.1 A. H; ? c) A6 p) G" O0 \
' n. }0 G: a( G& o$ FDavid 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.
