China — A Civilisation That Became a State

Why understanding China begins with history rather than politics

For many people outside Asia, China is primarily viewed through the lens of geopolitics. Trade disputes, technological competition, artificial intelligence, manufacturing and military tensions dominate international headlines, creating the image of a rapidly rising global power reshaping the international order.Yet geopolitics explains only the latest chapter of China’s story.

While many Western societies naturally interpret political change through election cycles measured in years, China often understands national development across decades, generations and even centuries. That difference in historical perspective influences far more than government policy. It shapes how the country understands continuity, development and its own place in the world.

Understanding modern China therefore begins not with politics, but with history.

Long before the People’s Republic was founded in 1949, long before industrialisation and even before Europe entered the modern age, China had already developed one of the world’s oldest continuous civilisations. Dynasties rose and fell, capitals moved and governments changed, yet many of the underlying institutions, philosophies and cultural traditions continued to evolve rather than disappear.

This continuity helps explain why China often appears difficult to interpret through purely Western political frameworks. Modern China is certainly a nation state, but it also carries the accumulated experience of more than two millennia of civilisational development.

China is often described as a rising power. It may be more accurately understood as an ancient civilisation continuously reinventing itself.

Rather than asking only how China behaves today, it is equally important to ask how China understands itself. Only then does the relationship between history, society and state begin to make sense.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics: The Invisible Engine of Modern Technology

How one of South Korea’s largest component manufacturers quietly enables the technologies shaping the digital age.

Almost everyone knows the Samsung name. Millions of people carry it in their pockets every day, recognising it as one of the world’s largest consumer electronics brands.

Far fewer realise that one of Samsung’s most influential businesses manufactures products consumers never see. Its components are found not only inside Samsung devices but also throughout the global electronics industry, quietly supporting products built by many of the world’s leading technology companies. That company is Samsung Electro-Mechanics (SEMCO).

In an age defined by artificial intelligence, electric vehicles and increasingly powerful mobile devices, technological leadership is no longer determined solely by the processors that capture the headlines. It also depends on the microscopic components that regulate power, transmit signals and connect increasingly complex electronic systems.

As devices become smaller while simultaneously becoming more capable, those invisible building blocks have become every bit as important as the processors they support.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics has spent more than five decades perfecting precisely that invisible layer.

“The future of electronics depends on our ability to continuously make components smaller, thinner and more capable.”

Chang Duckhyun
President & CEO
Samsung Electro-Mechanics

His observation captures one of the defining characteristics of modern electronics. Progress is no longer measured simply by faster processors or brighter displays. Increasingly, innovation depends on how efficiently thousands of microscopic components can coexist within an ever-smaller space.

South Korea — A Society Built on Acceleration

Why understanding South Korea begins with transformation rather than technology

Portrait of Asia

South Korea is often presented as one of the world’s great technological success stories. Semiconductors, smartphones, electric vehicles, digital infrastructure and globally successful entertainment have transformed both its economy and its international image. Few countries have reshaped their global reputation so profoundly within a single generation.

Yet technology explains only part of South Korea’s remarkable rise. Behind its industrial achievements lies one of the fastest societal transformations in modern history. Within little more than half a century, South Korea evolved from one of the world’s poorest countries into one of its most advanced economies.

Entire generations witnessed a transition from rural villages to megacities, from widespread poverty to global brands and from post-war reconstruction to leadership in artificial intelligence, semiconductors and digital innovation.

Understanding South Korea therefore requires looking beyond its companies. It requires understanding the society that made those companies possible.

South Korea’s greatest achievement may not simply be the technologies it produces. It may be the extraordinary speed with which an entire society reinvented itself.

South Korea’s greatest achievement may not simply be the technologies it produces. It may be the extraordinary speed with which an entire society reinvented itself.