This year is the 100th anniversary of the start of the first word war, the 70th anniversary of D-Day and the 25th anniversaries of the collapse of the Soviet empire and the savage crackdown around Tiananmen Square. One hundred years ago, Europe’s fragile order fell apart. Seventy years ago, the democracies launched an assault on totalitarian Europe. Twenty-five years ago, Europe became whole and free, while China chose market economics and the party state. We have now lived for a quarter of a century in an era of global capitalism. But the political and economic pressures of such an era are also increasingly evident.
今年是一戰爆發100周年，諾曼底登陸70周年，蘇聯解體和天安門事件25周年。100年前，歐洲脆弱的秩序分崩離析。70年前，民主國家對極權歐洲發起了攻擊。25年前，歐洲成為一個自由的整體，中國則選擇了市場經濟加一黨制。如今，我們邁入全球資本主義時代已有25年。但這個時代面臨的政治和經濟壓力也日益明顯。