One of the great myths of the 21st Century is the concept of a 'Chinese Empire'.

The idea is absurd, will never happen and I will explain why.

To create an Empire you require several ingredients:

1. Visionary businessmen.
2. Leaders.
3. Innovation.
4. 'Rugged individualists' (for lack of a better term).
5. An enterprise culture at home.
6. Perceived benevolence.

If you look at all these qualities you see they are non existent, and often unheard of, in China and Oriental culture in general, (which is one reason two decades ago there was the 'Japanese Empire' which peaked in April 1990 before quickly going tits up).

China has done very well for itself by offering to manufacture products very cheaply with what amounts to a slave labour force.

That is it.

That is their entire contribution to the World....a workforce paid a tenner per week.

They have no innovations, no inventors, no one in a Peking garage tinkering away at nights and weekends to create the 'next big thing', and apart from the unlikelihood of someone in Peking actually having a garage, the whole idea would result in quizzical looks and head scratching were it to be suggested to the average Chinaman.

If you compare previous Empires such as Greece, Rome, Britain, Spain (and even Germany circa 1938) they were awash with 'ideas' and things which were 'new'.

These previous Empires were also filled with Leaders and 'Rugged Individualists'.

To take the British Empire, as a very successful example, they had men who were ambitious, greedy, ruthless, natural 'leaders' and individualists prepared to suffer hardships, setbacks and undertake whatever was necessary in pursuit of their objectives to succeed in 'Empire building'.

Mostly, these were not very likeable men (such as Lord Clive of India who was a nasty piece of work) but by God they certainly got the job done, and did not piss about with red tape, filling out forms and checking with a Superior.

China, despite its enormous population, has no such men.

They have no history of 'Individualists' even before the Communist revolution, and six decades of evil have snuffed out whatever candles were burning on that front.

This single point in itself is the reason there will never be a 'Chinese Empire', because the vital ingredient is missing.

The Chinese idea is to work 14 hour days, 7 days per week and save your money and ...ummmmmmm...(something is bound to happen, not quire sure what, but this work ethic is indoctrinated from birth and everybody does it so it must be for a reason).

Contrast this attitude with Hernan Cortes who set about stealing as much gold as he could before the prize bunny Aztecs twigged how valuable it was!

Once again, it comes down to "attitude" and the Chinese simply do not have the required attitude to build an Empire.
They have no history of an enterprise culture, no history of freedom, no history of 'working smarter', no history of innovation, no history of inventors, no 'leaders'...not a single attitude or attribute they need.

Another aspect of Empire building which the Chinese do not have, which certainly existed with the Romans, Greeks, Spanish, British (and in a twisted kind of way Germany in the 1930s) is the idea they are being benevolent.

All these Empires were exporting languages, religions, cultures, a way of life, art, music, architecture or whatever, with the intention of 'helping' those they conquered.

One reason Japan fell on its face two decades ago, is they were simply copying 'Western' and American culture, and once the Ninja/Shogun Traditional Dress nonsense was exposed as a distant memory and not part of contemporary Japanese society, had an impossible task trying to somehow 're-export' that culture back to America.

China, however, does not even have that!

Chinese attitudes are a focus on 'cheap' and disposable, similar to what is produced in their factories.

You only have to look at Apartment buildings around Auckland built by Chinese Developers to see the cheap and disposable values at work (in contrast to Metropolis or Sentinel for example).

There is no eye to the future, no iconic monuments, no instrinsic products, no culture...nothing.

So, the idea you can somehow create an Empire without any of the vital ingredients, without leadership, without innovation, without the correct 'attitude', but just somehow thrown together on the cheap and nasty, is naive and likely to be even less successful than the long forgotten Japanese Empire of 1989.