中国人在绘制超级大地图（中英双语）
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编者按：环球时报英文版第40篇“变局”专栏，作者中国人民大学重阳金融研究院执行院长王文由一幅地图引发深思，在信息化时代，中国人在日常工作、生活中创造了与社会互联互通的超级大地图。可见，“地图的绘制力本身就是一种国家实力，而中国崛起还只是刚刚开始。”文中观点引起不少海外人士关注和评论。人大重阳君为您推荐英文版、中文译文。
本文英文版在Global Times的版面截图
我的办公室里挂着一幅1717年世界地图的原件。当时，南极洲、北冰洋、阿拉斯加、夏威夷都没有被人类发现，但墨卡托投影法已在地图绘制中普及，经纬线构织成网格，投射在圆柱面上，极大提升人类探索未知世界的方向感。果然，此后半个世纪，英国海军军官詹姆斯·库克船长发现了上述占地球表面1/4面积的疆域，为“日不落帝国”的缔造做出巨大贡献。
每天上班，推开门的第一瞬间，我都会看到这幅地图。作为一名研究全球治理的学者，难免常常感叹，当时中国在清代康熙年间，仍在用山川河流工笔画勾勒疆域，不精确，更限制了决策者的战略视野。19世纪的衰败给了中国人惨痛的历史教训。
学术界通常从政治、经济、社会、文化等诸多宏大视角，思考近代化以来中华帝国的崩溃原因，却往往忽视了地图绘制的这个细节。幸运的是，当代中国人已杜绝了历史重演。在信息化时代，地图在中国变得更立体、更智能，潜移默化地对中国崛起发挥推动作用。
中国约有8亿人使用智能手机，这意味着只要是成年人几乎人手一部。每部智能手机就是新时代的绘制地图器，通过各类APP，告诉有需要的人，哪家餐厅更好吃？哪个旅游景点更有趣？哪家酒店更实惠？哪个快递服务更好？外卖小哥已送到哪里了？哪条路线更畅快？哪个国家应去旅游？
很明显，中国人与地图形成了互动关系，不只是利用地图，知晓自己需要的信息，还将个体植入地图，通过个人评价、生活方式、日常工作，创造了社会互联互通的超级大地图。而这个新版图成为信息化时代国家治理现代化的重要组成。
在新冠疫情期，每个中国人都能利用智能手机，发现新增病例的方位，比如，病例是在哪里发现的？患者住在哪里？哪个城市甚至哪片街道是高风险地区？这幅超级大地图指导着中国人在特殊时期的生活与工作，增强了风险意识，降低了感染率，使中国成为控制疫情最成功的国家之一。
21世纪的世界，地图绘制力本身就是一种国家实力。地图不再只是强调山河湖水、交通路线，还在强化着每一个国家组成要素的互联互通程度。这当然包括通信光缆、高速铁路、油气管道、都市群落的网络文明发展状况，更折射了高效日常生活工作的全民理念。
从这个角度看，中国人的绘制地图能力，背后反映的是21世纪以来中国对基础设施建设方面领先于世界的先进程度。在5G时代，中国社会构成的每一个要素，能源、交通、通信、物资、货币、技术甚至生活方式，都逐渐形成万物互联的时代图景，高效地完成每一批生产、每一次运输、每一笔交易、每一场聚会、每一轮创新……
而这恰恰是中国社会能够平衡稳定、发展与改革三角关系的关键原因。社会要素之间互联互通，技术进步推动联通水平的改革升级，社会鸿沟随着升级弥合而呈现一体化发展。比如，中国低收入者通过超级大地图能得到外卖、打车、无现金支付等社会均等化服务，而过去这只能是拥有厨师、司机和会计的富人才能享受的生活水准。
有中国人曾调侃，如果明尼苏达的无现金支付像中国这么普及，就不会出现怀疑乔治·弗洛依德使用20美元假钞致死事件。如果美国疫情地图编制得更完善，就不会超过10万人死亡，也不会让国家变得越来越不平等，导致民众愤怒上街，最终酿成美国史上最大的城市骚乱与社会分裂。而这一切，又起源美国禁用华为，落后于5G时代。
按帕拉格·康纳在《超级版图（CONNECTOGRAPHY）》一书中的说法，在21世纪，世界各国国力的强弱不仅取决于军事力量和人口规模等国内因素，也取决于本国的互联互通能力。在我看来，国家互联互通能力，不只是国家与其他国家之间的互联互通，也在于国家内部的方便快捷。这直接决定着一个国家能配置多大的全球资源。
由此看，联想到中国在全球推动“一带一路”建设，在国内推行物联网、智慧城市、云计算、大数据等“网络强国”战略，可以很自信地说，中国崛起还只是刚刚开始。
以下为英文版
Chinese are drawing a super map
In my office hangs an antique world map drawn in 1717, on which Antarctica, the Arctic Ocean, Alaska, and Hawaii are absent. The Mercator projection was already widely adopted in drawing maps with parallels and meridians back then and it facilitated navigation. Thanks to the development of map projection, late British captain James Cook discovered many places where Westerners had never gone ashore before, such as the east coast of Australia and Hawaii.
My sight lands on that map everyday when I step into my office. As a scholar focusing on global governance, I occasionally feel sorry for the underdevelopment of map projections in ancient China. When the Mercator projection was already widely used in Europe, Chinese - under the rule of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) emperor Kangxi from 1661 to 1722 - drew maps with elaborate styles of painting. The inaccurate maps limited rulers' strategic views.
Eyeing politics, economy, society, and culture, scholars have been reflecting on the collapse of the Chinese empire after modernization era began. But they have often neglected factors of map making. Fortunately, the Chinese are capable of stopping this history from repeating itself.
In the information age, three-dimensional and smarter maps have played subtle roles in promoting China's development. About 800 million people in China use smartphones. With diverse mobile apps, users actually contribute to map projection - they note in apps which restaurants serve better food, which couriers always deliver on time, which routes can save time at rush hours, or which country is better travel destinations, and so on.
Chinese are not only using maps, they themselves have jointly created a super map of social connectivity, which is an important part of China's modern governance in the information age.
During the fight against COVID-19 epidemic, Chinese have utilized smartphones to get informed where new infections were spotted, where the infected people had been to, and which cities and even which districts were under higher risks of infection.
Such a super map provided guidance for living and working in the special period. It helped people stay alert, and thus reduced the possibility of getting infected. This made China one of the most successful countries that put the deadly virus under control quickly.
In the 21st century, map projection capability is part of a country's national strength. Maps are not only about mountains, rivers, and roads. They can also harness a country's internal connectivity. Communications cables, high-speed railways, oil and gas pipelines, and internet are all connected with people's daily life and work.
From this perspective, the increase in China's map projection capability reflects its leading infrastructure construction in the world. In the 5G era, various landscapes of Chinese society - energy, transportation, communications, logistics, currency, technology, and even lifestyle - have drawn a picture of Internet of Things (IoT) and laid foundation for production, transport, trade, gathering, and innovation in the country.
This is the key for China to strike a balance with stability, development and reform. Interconnections between different social sectors due to technological advances have mitigated gaps in society and promoted integrative development.
Each and every person in China today can equally enjoy services such as food delivery, car hailing, and non-cash payments. This used to be the exclusive privilege of the rich who owned private chefs, drivers, and stewards.
Some people say that if non-cash payments in Minnesota were as popular as they are in China, George Floyd wouldn't have died for allegedly using counterfeit money. Some say part of the reason is the fact that the US is lagging behind in the 5G era.
"We are moving into an era where cities will matter more than states and supply chains will be a more important source of power than militaries - whose main purpose will be to protect supply chains rather than borders. Competitive connectivity is the arms race of the twenty-first century," Parag Khanna, founder and managing partner of FutureMap, a data- and scenario-based strategic advisory firm based in Singapore, wrote in his book Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization.
In my view, connectivity is not only about connections among countries, but also about interconnectivity within a single state. It determines how many global resources a country can pool.
Given Khanna's argumentation, we can confidently say that China's rise is just about to start as it proposes the Belt and Road Initiative globally while enhancing cyber power domestically through promoting IoT, smart cities, cloud computing, and big data.
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中国人民大学重阳金融研究院（人大重阳）成立于2013年1月19日，是重阳投资董事长裘国根先生向母校捐赠并设立教育基金运营的主要资助项目。
作为中国特色新型智库，人大重阳聘请了全球数十位前政要、银行家、知名学者为高级研究员，旨在关注现实、建言国家、服务人民。目前，人大重阳下设7个部门、运营管理4个中心(生态金融研究中心、全球治理研究中心、中美人文交流研究中心、中俄人文交流研究中心)。近年来，人大重阳在金融发展、全球治理、大国关系、宏观政策等研究领域在国内外均具有较高认可度。
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