New Shanghai-based Chinese online news site Guancha recently published an article written by Kishore Mahbubani who was, formerly, Singapore’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations. In that role, he served as President of the United Nations Security Council in January 2001 and May 2002. Mahbubani analyzed the reasons behind America’s sense of insecurity. He thought that the U.S. made its first strategic mistake in 1990, when the Cold War finally ended. The West was distracted by its huge success and did not pay attention to the awakening of China and India. The second strategic mistake came in 2001. Any American will tell you today that 911 was the biggest event that year. It completely changed the global political landscape. However, what the Americans missed that year was the event of China joining the World Trade Organization (then known as GATT), when China suddenly injected 800 million new workers into the global economy. The third mistake occurred in 2014. Based on the calculation model of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), the U.S. economic output was around 16 percent of the global economy, while China’s share surpassed 16 percent. However, no U.S. leader even publicly mentioned this enormous historic milestone. The U.S. used to have great thinkers and strategists, but now what’s left is its sense of insecurity.
Source: Guancha, February 16, 2019
https://www.guancha.cn/MaKaiShuo/2019_02_16_490336.shtml?s=zwyxgtjbt