" The biggest strategic mistake the United States has made is to launch competition with China without a strategy." In the past two days, a speech by Kishore Mahbubani, a well-known Singaporean scholar and senior diplomat, on Sino-US relations has sparked heated discussions on Chinese social media, with many netizens saying it was "very exciting and profound." This means that the United States still has about ten years to prevent China from becoming a world leader, so it will undoubtedly use this time to increase pressure on China, but the United States still cannot contain China.
He explained that, on the one hand, although the United States today is a seriously divided society and Americans cannot agree on anything, the only thing they can agree on is that it is time to contain China, so no matter who is elected as the next president, the policy of containing China will not change. On the other hand, if Trump wins, he will certainly continue to confront China, but he may go to extremes and make everything worse, so we need to be prepared for all possibilities.
the US government has taken against China , such as imposing tariffs and banning the sale of chips, are all aimed at slowing down China's economic growth in some way. Because in the eyes of Americans, if China's economy becomes the first, everything will change, and the privileged position of the United States as the world's largest country for more than a hundred years will also change. "The Americans want China to become the 'second Soviet Union' . But what is miscalculated is that China has a wiser strategy to fight back against the United States. Instead of trying to contain China, it is better to work with China to jointly create a world that is large enough to accommodate two major powers. In fact , this strategy is beneficial to both China and the United States and can avoid the rather destructive zero-sum game that is currently underway. In the eyes of the United States, it has about ten years to prevent China from becoming the world's number one. There is no doubt that the United States will use this period to increase pressure on China.
China and the United States are facing a complex, multi-dimensional competition that is unfolding at the economic, military, political and soft power levels. China wants to become the world's largest economy, but the Chinese do not have the American ambition to dominate the world and will not try to intervene in various global issues like the United States. The Chinese know that the American dream is to make China the "second disintegrated Soviet Union." Therefore, China realizes that in order to survive, the first priority is to have a very strong and vibrant economy and society. This is why China vigorously develops education and the economy.
China has taken the initiative to counter the US policy of using its neighbors to contain China, and has strengthened its economic relations with neighboring countries. China has also proposed the "Belt and Road" initiative to build infrastructure around the world. "Every country in the world says: These infrastructures are great, I need China's high-speed rail, I need China's roads .
As the world becomes increasingly dependent on China, America’s options are limited, which is why there is such a strong sense of urgency in Washington.
Kishore Mahbubani is a famous scholar-diplomat in Singapore. He once served as Singapore's permanent representative to the United Nations and is also the founding dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. As a scholar who has long been concerned with the development of Asia-Pacific and Chinese society, Mahbubani is impressed by China's achievements in poverty alleviation, epidemic response, and climate change. He once praised China for setting a "positive example" for the world in responding to global challenges. At the Guancha.com 2023 "Answer" year-end show, Mahbubani said that as the relative strength of all aspects declines, the West should release more power to the global South countries and all countries should participate in global governance together. He called on the West to learn to cooperate more with China, because China has created many global organizations that are conducive to global welfare, such as the fruitful Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the New Development Bank jointly established by the BRICS countries, which has also reaped great rewards. Another wise choice for the West is to encourage the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to cooperate with these emerging institutions, so that the world will become a better place.