Herland Report: U.S. must approach China with humility: China has been around for 5,000 years. The United States has been around for 250 years.
And it’s not surprising that a juvenile like the United States would have difficulty dealing with a wiser, older civilization, writes Kishore Mahbubani, one of the leading Asian academics whose influence has shaped the intellectual debate for decades.
He is a Distinguished Fellow at the Asia Research Institute (ARI), National University of Singapore (NUS).
Mr. Mahbubani has been privileged to enjoy two distinct careers, in diplomacy (1971 to 2004) and in academia (2004 to 2019). He is a prolific writer who has spoken in many corners of the world.
So the troubles that the United States is having in dealing with China are perfectly understandable. What the United States doesn’t understand is the longer arc of human history.
There’s a British historian called Angus Maddison who pointed out that if you look at the history of the world over the past 2,000 years, the two largest economies of the world have always been those of China and India.
It’s only in the last 200 years that the West took off, Europe in the 19th century and North America in the 20th century.
The past 200 years of world history have been a major historical aberration and all aberrations come to a natural end.
The following is a lightly edited transcript of remarks made by Kishore Mahbubani during a Newsweek podcast debate on China. You can listen to the podcast here.
U.S. must approach China with humility: It’s perfectly natural to see the West retreat to its normal share of global power. And there are some things in the longer arc of human history that cannot be stopped. So the return of China, and subsequently India, are perfectly natural developments.
Of course it’s perfectly natural for the United States, which has got used to being number one for 130 years since they replaced British in 1819, to feel a sense of entitlement, that they should always be number one in the world.
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What the United States lacks in dealing with China is a comprehensive long-term strategy, which is what you need to deal with one of the oldest civilizations on planet earth. This insight actually was given to me by Henry Kissinger, writes Mahbubani.
China is not threatening the United States. China is not mounting a military invasion of the United States. China is not sending troops to the U.S. border or naval ships close to United States.
This is the most important point for Americans to learn: China is not threatening American prosperity because American middle class prosperity has been the main engine of China’s economic growth.
So if the Chinese destroy American middle class prosperity, they are destroying the main engine of China’s economic growth—and the oldest civilization in the world is not a stupid civilization. It understands that actually American prosperity is a gift to the world and a gift to China.
In this new world that is emerging, the West—including the United States— created a rules-based order that is based on the United Nations system.
It’s a system I know well because I was an ambassador to the UN for over 10 years. That rules-based order created by the West is a gift to China and China wants to preserve it and protect it.
So the paradox about the world today is that even though the global rules based order is a gift of the west, China embraces it.
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U.S. must approach China with humility: A massive geopolitical contest has begun.
America prizes freedom; China values freedom from chaos.
America values strategic decisiveness; China values patience.
America is becoming society of lasting inequality; China a meritocracy.
America has abandoned multilateralism; China welcomes it.
Read Kishore Mahbubani’s latest book Has China Won? The Chinese Challenge to American Primacy. “A seasoned Singaporean diplomat’s latest book injects much-needed realpolitik back into the U.S.-China relationship and asks painful questions about the state of America”, writes The National Interest.
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Led by Scandinavian bestselling author, Hanne Nabintu Herland, The Herland Report news and opinion website provides independent analysis from leading Western intellectuals and ground breaking YouTube interviews, cutting through the mainstream media rhetoric. It is a great place to watch interviews and read the articles of leading intellectuals, thought leaders, authors and activists from across the political spectrum. The Herland Report believes in freedom of speech and its editorial policy resides above the traditional Left vs Right paradigm which we believe has lost its relevance and ability to describe the current driving forces in Western politics.
