World Affairs
Kishore Mahbubani and George Yeo discuss US-China competition in Asia/Pacific
Jun 27, 2021The most dangerous thing that is happening in the world is a sharp divide in the perceptions of what is really happening in China. The dominant view in the west is that the Chinese people are clearly suffering under the ruthless Communist Party leadership of China.
This perception was well captured in an article in the Financial Times on 17 June 2021 by Jamil Anderlini. One paragraph from his article said it all.
“In reality, the last ruling Communist party of a major country has morphed into a conservative reactionary party bent on preserving the power of state capitalist elites and advancing a distinctly 19th-century form of ethno-nationalist imperialism.”
The keyword in the paragraph above is the word ‘reality’. Actually, the description of Jamil Anderlini is “unreal”. The reality is that the vast majority of Chinese people have never been happier. If George Kennan were alive today, he would emphasize the “spiritual vitality” that the Chinese people are experiencing.
To get a flavour of how most thoughtful East Asians view the “reality” of China, you may want to listen to the podcast interview I did with Mr George Yeo, the former Foreign Minister of Singapore. I believe that his analyses provide a better description of the “reality” of China.
Please feel free to share this link with your friends. Since China is going to become the most powerful country in the world within a decade or so, it would be tragic not to understand the reality of the power that is emerging.
This transcript has been republished from the Asian Peace Talks podcast 19 June 2021. Click here to listen to the full episode.
Kishore Mahbubani is a distinguished fellow at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, whose books include The Asian 21st Century and Has China Won?. And the author of ‘Has the West Lost It?’
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