Geography, Agronomy, and the Continuity of Empires: The Birth of the Geopolitical Age According to Shellen Xiao Wu

Wu, Shellen Xiao. Birth of the Geopolitical Age: Global Frontiers and the Making of Modern China. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2023

Abstract

In the first volume of the Foundation Trilogy, by renowned science fiction author Isaac Asimov, the administrator of a small planetary colony receives a visit from an emissary of a nearby space power. After the customary exchanges of pleasantries, the emissary observes that the planet has vast tracts of unexploited land and asks if they have considered dividing it into states. The novel, published in the mid-20th century, may be symptomatic of deeper processes underway, as we shall see below.

The relationship between unexploited land, the formation of states, and the delimitation of borders for its use has to do with ideas about the administration of territories. This is precisely the theme explored by Wu in Birth of the Geopolitical Age: Global Frontiers and the Making of Modern China. In particular, the author asks how modern China has dealt with its territorial aspect. Wu observes that, despite significant political transformations—such as the fall of the Empire and the establishment of the People's Republic—Chinese territory did not undergo substantial territorial changes. This geographical continuity is reflected, in turn, in a continuity in how its authorities conceive of it.