Kishore Mahbubani, a prolific writer, speaker and former Singaporean diplomat, believes that the western domination of the world over the last 200 years is "aberrant" when seen in the context of the last several thousand years of human history. In his book "Has China Won", he writes that "we are also moving away from a black-and-white world". "Societies in different parts of the world, including in China and Islamic societies, are going to work toward a different balance between liberty and order, between freedom and control, between discord and harmony".
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Kishore Mahbubabi |
In a recent interview, Mahbubani made the following points about US-China competition:
1. The United States with about 240-year history likes to pass judgement on China which has over 2,400 year history. What makes the US think China would listen to the American advice?
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Global Power Shift Since Industrial Revolution |
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Riaz Haq
Secretary of State Marco Rubio With Brian Kilmeade of Fox News - U.S. Embassy & Consulates in China
Secretary Marco Rubio is interviewed by Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade at the Department of State in Washington, D.C., February 25, 2025.
https://china.usembassy-china.org.cn/secretary-of-state-marco-rubio...
Rubio: “China is going to be a rich and powerful country. No matter what we do, that’s what – we’re going to have to deal with that. But we have to deal with the reality. What we cannot have is a world where China is so powerful, we depend on them. And that’s right now where we’re headed, unfortunately. That’s going to change. That’s going to change under President Trump”
Mar 2
Riaz Haq
From competing to beating US in numbers and tonnage, here’s how China built its shipping empire
PLA Navy now fields more warships than US Navy and is on track to deploy 425-ship fleet by 2030, sustained by industrial base capable of replacing, repairing vessels way faster than US yards.
SNEHESH ALEX PHILIP
https://theprint.in/defence/from-competing-to-beating-us-in-numbers...
New Delhi: The Indian Navy had plans to become a 200-ship strong force by 2027. But in 2019, it revised its target downwards to 170, citing an acute financial crunch. Contrast this to the Chinese. Over the past two decades, the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has grown from a modest coastal force into a regional juggernaut with frigates, destroyers, submarines and aircraft carriers being constructed and commissioned at record speed.
As of 2022, the PLAN was operating a battle force fleet of 351 ships, surpassing the US Navy’s 294.
According to the Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), China has already overtaken the US Navy in terms of hull count, and is rapidly closing the gap in fleet tonnage and key technologies like Vertical Launch System (VLS) missile cells. By 2024, China’s surface combatants deployed half the VLS cells of their US counterparts, up from just a quarter in 2019.
This stark growth is compounded by the fact that China’s naval forces are primarily concentrated in the Indo-Pacific, whereas US forces are globally dispersed.
Since 2010, China has dramatically reduced the tonnage gap with the US from roughly 4 million tons to under 1.6 million tons.
China’s emergence as a global shipbuilding powerhouse began with key policy changes that were initiated in the early 2000s. Recognizing that the rapid growth of containerized maritime trade would be a boon for global shipbuilders, Beijing began developing ambitious plans to position Chinese firms at the forefront of the industry. In 2002, Zhu Rongji, China’s premier and chief economic architect at the time, visited the headquarters of CSSC, where he declared that China would seek “to become the largest shipbuilding country by 2015”.
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China’s shipbuilding dominance a national security risk for US: Report
https://www.defensenews.com/global/asia-pacific/2025/03/11/chinas-s...
In only two decades, China has grown to be the dominant player in shipbuilding, claiming more than half of the world’s commercial shipbuilding market, while the U.S. share has fallen to just 0.1%, posing serious economic and national security challenges for the U.S. and its allies, according to a report released Tuesday by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
In 2024 alone, one Chinese shipbuilder constructed more commercial vessels by tonnage than the entire U.S. shipbuilding industry has built since the end of World War II. China already has the world’s largest naval fleet, the Washington-based bipartisan think tank said in its 75-page report.
“The erosion of U.S. and allied shipbuilding capabilities poses an urgent threat to military readiness, reduces economic opportunities, and contributes to China’s global power-projection ambitions,” the report said.
Concerns about the poor state of U.S. shipbuilding have been growing in recent years, as the country faces rising challenges from China, which has the world’s second-largest economy and has ambitions to reshape the world order. At a congressional hearing in December, senior officials and lawmakers urged action.
Last week, President Donald Trump told Congress that his Republican administration would “resurrect” the American shipbuilding industry, for commercial and military vessels, and he would create “a new office of shipbuilding in the White House.”
“We used to make so many ships,” Trump said. “We don’t make them anymore very much, but we’re going to make them very fast, very soon. It will have a huge impact.”
Mar 16
Riaz Haq
This warship shows why the U.S. Navy is falling behind China.
Stocked with high-tech weaponry to protect against enemy submarines, missiles and drones, the Constellation was meant to address an embarrassing reality: The U.S. is now the global laggard in building warships. The U.S. chose a proven design from Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri in an effort to speed the process. Then the Navy started tinkering. Now, after 4½ years of design and construction, the project is only 10% complete, WSJ reports.
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https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/warship-shows-why-u-...
When a Wisconsin shipyard won the contract to build a new class of Navy frigate in 2020, the project was meant to address an embarrassing reality: The U.S. is now the global laggard in building warships.
Stocked with high-tech weaponry to protect against enemy submarines, missiles and drones, the USS Constellation was expected to be ready for the open water in 2026. That was because the U.S. chose a proven design from Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri FCT -1.43%decrease; red down pointing triangle in an effort to speed the process.
Then the Navy started tinkering.
The hull was lengthened by 24 feet to accommodate larger generators and reconfigured in part because the design was based on the relatively benign conditions in the Mediterranean, and the propeller changed for better acoustic performance, among other time-consuming adjustments.
The effect: Like almost all other U.S. naval vessels, the Constellation is already years behind schedule and millions over budget.
Physical construction began in mid-2022, and after more than 2½ years, the project is only 10% complete, according to a person familiar with the timeline.
At this pace, including the two years of design time before building began, the ship will be completed in a total of nine years—around twice as long as it took an Italian shipyard to build the vessels it is based on. The Constellation, the first in what is expected to be around 20 to be built, is projected to cost at least $600 million more than its original estimate of $1.3 billion.
The Constellation’s slow production and extra costs help explain why almost nobody wants to buy new American warships—even as allies clamor for U.S. fighter jets and other weapons.
A festering problem for the U.S. has turned into an acute one, as the world order shifts rapidly and the Pentagon gears up for a potential conflict in Asia that experts believe would be fought in large part on the seas.
The issue is top of mind for President Trump, who is racing to address the problem even as his tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum would likely increase the cost of the domestically produced metals shipbuilders use.
Trump said in his speech to Congress this month that his administration wants to create a new Office of Shipbuilding, with the goal of producing more of both commercial and military vessels. The administration is also preparing an executive order aimed at reviving U.S. shipbuilding and cutting Chinese dominance in the industry.
China years ago leapfrogged America in making naval craft faster and for less money. From 2014 to 2023, China’s navy launched 157 ships while the U.S. launched 67, according to independent defense analyst Tom Shugart. The Chinese fleet is now the world’s largest, although the U.S. Navy says the quality of its ships are still better.
Most countries are faster at building. Of 20 different frigates made recently or set for completion soon in 10 different countries, all but one were or will be built in less time than the U.S.’s Constellation, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis. Frigates are the medium-size warships used for submarine warfare and escorting larger ships, among other tasks. U.S. construction of destroyers, the larger, heavily armed warships, is also slower than other countries.
Mar 21