Geopolitical scientist Gilles Gressani, co-founder of the magazine Le Grand Continent**, poses this** "paradox" in the latest book of his journal devoted to the enemies of Europe, while China represents "half of what matters in geopolitics and economics".
Small moment of floating on the set of LCI, on May 28, during David Pujadas' daily show." I ask you the question around this table: who can mention the name of three living Chinese today?", says the presenter to his guests, journalists Ruth Elkrief (LCI), Jean Quatremer (Libération), Pascal Perri (TF1/LCI) and Thierry Fabre (Challenges). Embarrassed silence. We are thinking. We rack our brains. "There is Xi Jinping, the president," begins one of them. That will be all. To discover
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"There is a problem when cultured people, who are interested in international business, who read the press, have difficulty imagining the existence of three Chinese figures," says Gilles Gressani, director of the magazine Le Grand Continent. It is he who, in the introduction of the latest book published by his magazine, L'Ennemi qui nous désigne (Gallimard, 2026), poses this "paradox": China weighs "half of what counts in geopolitics and economics", but no one is able to sing three names of living Chinese. "We continue to totally ignore what is happening" "It says something fundamental," adds the essayist. "We live with mental representations that are those of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. We still live in 2000, when in reality we are much closer to 2050." The book, which brings together several texts by "renowned sinologists and key doctrinaries of Xi Jinping", under the direction of the Italian-Swiss writer and political scientist Giuliano da Empoli, offers precisely an "exclusive file" on the Middle Kingdom. "If we feel such a vertigo in the face of the ongoing upheavals, it is perhaps because we still refuse to integrate a massive dimension of the contemporary: China," plants the presentation of the volume.
Gilles Gressani invites you to look at the "impressive" figures: between 2018 and 2019 alone, China produced more cement than the United States throughout the 20th century, he says. In addition, "more than half of AI research is done in China", and renewable energy installations are "vertiginous". "However, we continue to completely ignore what is happening," he notes.
It's kind of a hard question because Chinese names seem harder for English speakers to remember. I read science articles by Chinese authors all all the time, and the names don't stay with me nearly as easily as Western-style names do. That's why people like Jack Ma and Lisa Su anglicize their names, in all likelihood. Michelle Yeoh is also easy to remember (someone already mentioned Jackie Chan). Chow Yun-Fat came to me after a while, but I had to check his name and also that he was still alive. We unfortunately lost Chen-Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee both quite recently, at well-advanced ages. Yao Ming is still around, retired from basketball, but owner of the Shanghai Sharks last time I looked.
Present-day Chinese political figures other than Xi: yes I'm also drawing a blank.
For a Chinese politician (other than comrade Xi) I thought of Victor Gao, then I checked the web (Yandex search) and Deep Seek and it seems he has no direct role in government.
At least he is a living Chinese person. I can also name comrade Xi, Jack Ma, and Hu Yeh, a scientist named in a news article I read months ago. I remember his name because it has obscure funny connotations for me.
I think Michelle Yeoh is Malaysian
She is indeed
I'm pretty sure indeed is a platform for posting and applying to jobs, not a Malaysian actress.
She is, indeed.
Hu Jintao.
Yeah I've heard that name, but would not have remembered it. I also didn't remember the name of Taiwan's current president who is in the news now and then.
I've had various Chinese co-workers (US tech sector) over the years and I do remember their names, but most of them were anglicized. I'm going to presume that the initial challenge only counts Chinese people currently living in China, so e.g. Jensen Huang and Lip-Bu Tan don't count.