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”

[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”.

--------

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.”

[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.

----------

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.