One key goal of this book is to blow away the thick fog of misunderstanding that has enveloped the Sino-American relationship, to enable both sides to better understand—even if they cannot approve of—each other’s core interests. Better understanding will not necessarily lead to peace and harmony. On purely ideological grounds, any American administration must appear sympathetic to the demonstrators in Hong Kong clamoring for more rights. American public opinion demands that the United States support the demonstrations. However, any shrewd American administration should also balance public opinion with a sound understanding of the core interests of Chinese leaders. A Chinese leader who appears to be soft on territories that were once seized from China at China’s greatest moment of weakness in the nineteenth century will be condemned by his own people and quickly removed from office. It is my hope, therefore, that, on completion, a reader of this book will develop a better understanding of the deeper dynamics driving both sides. This book also makes room for a possibly optimistic conclusion. If we believe that we live in an age of reason, where public policies are driven by hardheaded, rational calculations and a geopolitical understanding of each other’s core interests, it is possible for both sides to work out long-term policies that will prevent them from moving inexorably toward a painful and unnecessary clash. There is one important statistic that both American and Chinese leaders should be consistently aware of: 330 million people live in America and 1.4 billion in China. These are big numbers, but the combined population of America and China (1.7 billion) still makes up less than 25 percent of the world’s population. Many of the remaining 75 percent of the population have now come to understand and accept that humanity lives in a small, connected, and imperiled planet that we all depend on. Hence, there will be little tolerance from the rest of the world of extreme or irrational measures adopted by either America or China.
Sharing the objective of this new book. Just thought that it will be interesting to share the local perspective of the USA and China relationship. The author, Kishore Mahbubani, has a nuanced and balanced view of this and I think it will be worth exploring on as we carry on from the previous book.
Today’s excerpt shows the complex dynamics and structures that will never allow any Chinese leader to take a soft stance on Hong Kong or Taiwan. Regardless of your view on this issue, the circumstances of the situation simply do not allow for China to publicly concede on this issue. In the upcoming passages, more will also be shared on the interesting dynamics between these 2 giants.
