Ambassador Kishore Mahbubani on US-China Competition

[Riaz Haq]

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". 

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? 

2. The West is in the habit of judging everyone, including the Chinese. The Chinese have just had the best 30 years of their history. Would the Chinese listen to the American advice on "democracy" and political freedoms after they have seen what happened to Russia when the Russians decided to adopt democracy in the1990s and their economy collapsed? 

3. More than 120 million Chinese tourists go to other countries freely and willingly return to China every year. Would they return freely if China was an oppressive stalinist regime? The fact is that while political freedoms have not increased there has been an explosion of personal freedoms in China over the last 30 years.

Global Power Shift Since Industrial Revolution

A recent post-COVID survey conducted by the Washington Post shows that Chinese citizens’ trust in their national government has jumped to 98%. Their trust in local government also increased compared to 2018 levels — 91% of Chinese citizens surveyed now said they trust or trust completely the township-level government. Trust levels rose to 93% at the county level, 94% at the city level and 95% at the provincial level. 

An earlier 2018 World Values Survey reported that 95% of Chinese citizens said that they have a great deal or quite a lot of trust in the national government. Comparatively, about 69% felt the same way about their local government. 

Here's a video of Mahbubani's interview:

https://youtu.be/KaPFmYxWMzI

https://www.youtube.com/embed/KaPFmYxWMzI"; title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>" height="315" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/video_object.png" width="560" style="cursor: move; background-color: #b2b2b2;" />

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[Riaz Haq]

2024 Research Leaders: Leading academic institutions | Nature Index

https://www.nature.com/nature-index/research-leaders/2024/instituti...

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT2PGR4Yo/

Position Institution Share 2022 Share 2023 Count 2023 Change in Adjusted Share* 2022–2023
1 Harvard University, United States of America (USA) 1169.58 1143.43 3763 -3.1%
2 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), China 598.85 635.81 3227 5.2%
3 University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), China 586.57 631.20 1858 6.7%
4 Peking University (PKU), China 562.29 617.17 2349 8.8%
5 Nanjing University (NJU), China 565.57 609.45 1448 6.8%
6 Zhejiang University (ZJU), China 479.35 595.37 1540 23.1%
7 Tsinghua University, China 529.08 593.45 1946 11.2%
8 Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU), China 437.07 492.47 1266 11.7%
9 Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), China 439.68 488.94 1449 10.2%
10 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States of America (USA) 479.97 484.86 2032 0.1%
11 Stanford University, United States of America (USA) 592.62 474.13 1929 -20.7%
12 Fudan University, China 429.84 461.26 1333 6.4%
13 Sichuan University (SCU), China 327.62 413.63 768 25.2%
14 The University of Tokyo (UTokyo), Japan 398.90 389.36 1239 -3.2%
15 University of Oxford, United Kingdom (UK) 423.50 388.35 1625 -9.1%
16 University of Michigan (U-M), United States of America (USA) 372.55 380.50 1415 1.2%
17 University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (UK) 428.91 368.12 1436 -14.9%
18 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Switzerland 353.52 346.26 1042 -2.9%
19 Yale University, United States of America (USA) 380.20 342.16 1402 -10.8%
20 Nankai University (NKU), China 316.97 337.67 797 5.6%
21 Wuhan University (WHU), China 276.30 334.72 768 20.1%
22 University of Toronto (U of T), Canada 366.05 334.38 1192 -9.4%
23 University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), United States of America (USA) 335.22 331.74 1062 -1.9%
24 Columbia University in the City of New York (CU), United States of America (USA) 342.91 330.31 1232 -4.5%
25 University of Pennsylvania (Penn), United States of America (USA) 374.65 323.65 1118 -14.4%
26 Cornell University, United States of America (USA) 302.76 320.47 1070 4.9%
27 University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), United States of America (USA) 341.25 313.78 1214 -8.8%
28 Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), China 248.29 312.65 725 24.8%
29 University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), United States of America (USA) 350.71 312.19 1358 -11.8%
30 Shandong University (SDU), China 263.71 309.49 951 16.3%
31 University of Washington (UW), United States of America (USA) 305.50 295.93 1452 -4.0%
32 Northwestern University (NU), United States of America (USA) 313.12 295.49 904 -6.4%
33 Johns Hopkins University (JHU), United States of America (USA) 351.93 294.65 1358 -17.0%
34 Xiamen University (XMU), China 262.58 289.61 569 9.3%
35 Soochow University, China 246.72 289.15 614 16.2%
36 Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), China 295.49 279.54 770 -6.2%
37 Jilin University (JLU), China 247.88 268.37 601 7.3%
38 National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore 250.00 253.94 904 0.7%
39 Central South University (CSU), China 189.42 252.70 582 32.2%
40 Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL), United States of America (USA) 261.57 251.01 804 -4.9%

[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”