China's rise is a natural return, says renowned scholar in China-U.S. relations debate

In a debate with American scholar Orville Schell, Kishore Mahbubani, a renowned Singaporean strategist, on Thursday said China's rise is a natural return and criticized the U.S. for "condescendingly" judging other countries.

The two scholars had an in-depth discussion on China-U.S. relations at the Asia Society in New York.

Mahbubani, a distinguished fellow at Asia Research Institute of the National University of Singapore and a former diplomat, also served as Singapore's permanent representative to the United Nations. He said that the U.S.-China rivalry is exactly what the "No.1 power" U.S. would do as it intends to prevent its competitor from overtaking it.

In response to Schell's question on how the world sees China's strategies, Kishore said that from the perspective of Asian, African and Latin American observers, China is trying to come back once again as a strong civilization.

He noted that 12 percent of the world's population lives in the West while 88 percent lives outside of it, and said how the 12 percent views China does not reflect the views of the 88 percent.

"What we see is the return of a civilization that we've seen for centuries go up and down. So this is a natural return," Kishore said. "When China tries to claim a place in the world as one of the great powers, it's a perfectly natural development," he added.

Kishore said that there is only one country in the world that poses judgement on the internal political systems of other countries. "It's a very exceptional country and I think you all know American exceptionalism."

He added that many countries in the Global South are very happy to maintain normal trade relations with China, but the difficulty they face lies in the current state of U.S.-China relations.

At the end of the debate, Mahbubani reiterated the need for the world to face the reality that China has risen and the need to have good relations with both China and the United States. He also expressed the hope that the United States and China would handle their differences appropriately and not destabilize the world, but rather focus on the really important issues facing humanity in the future.

(Cover: Kishore Mahbubani, a distinguished fellow at Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore. /CFP)