普鲁士铁血宰相俾斯麦曾经说过:“英国对我算得了什么呢?一个国家是否重要,取决于它能够把多少军队投入战场。”大概130年后,世界上最大的软件公司首席执行官斯蒂夫·巴尔默在判断哪个国家是最有力量时说:“我们衡量的标准就是看一个比率——每户拥有家庭电脑的多少。”关于国家实力的评论不仅矛盾重重,而且总在变化。从铁路时代到互联网时代,国家力量的衡量标准就发生了显著的变化。1948年,政治学家汉斯·摩根索认为国家实力的组成部分包括地理、自然资源(特别是粮食与原料)、工业能力、军事准备(特别是人口分布)、国民性格、国民道德、外交与政府的能力,但他强调,在衡量国家实力时切勿“给予任何单一因素以压倒一切的重要性”。摩根索着重强调的这一点,对于我们了解今天中国的确切实力具有特别的帮助。外界与我们自己对于中国概念的过分热烈的谈论,有可能正在形成某种语言的泡沫:语言的中国与真实的中国实力可能正在出现分离。了解这种语言泡沫的最好方式,是坚 Prussian Jagged Prime Minister Bismarck once said: “What does the United Kingdom count for me? Whether a country is important depends on how many troops it can put into the battlefield.” About 130 years later, the world’s largest software company CEO In determining which country is the most powerful, Steve Ballmer said: “The yardstick we measure is to look at a ratio - how many home computers each household has.” “Commentary on state power is not only contradictory, but always at Variety. From the railway era to the Internet era, significant changes have taken place in the measurement of state power. In 1948, political scientist Hans Morgenthau thought that the components of national power include geography, natural resources (especially food and raw materials), industrial capabilities, military preparations (especially population distribution), national character, national morals, diplomacy and However, he emphasized that it is important not to ”weigh the importance of giving any single factor overriding" when measuring national power. What Morgan Morgan emphasized this point is of special help in understanding the exact strength of China today. The outside world and our own overly heated talk about the concept of China may be creating a bubble in one language: the separation of China’s verbal and real Chinese power may be emerging. The best way to understand this language bubble is Kennedy