A Backlash Against Globalization?

At the museum of history in Hong Kong last month, you could visit an exhibition whose centerpiece was a old, bleached, shaped piece of wood, 11 m long. To be honest, it didn't look much. But it told a tale. For the wood was a rudder post from a huge Chinese junk built around the time, nearly 600 years ago, when the Chinese Muslim eunuch admiral Zheng He embarked on seven epic voyages that took him to southeast Asia and the shores of India, Arabia, and Africa, trading for spices and fabrics, livestock and raw materials.

After centuries,...