Kishore Mahbubani - Has China Won?

China and the US are locked in a struggle for international primacy, and the result of this contest will shape the world order for generations to come. Kishore Mahbubani captures the complexity of this battle with the measured nuance and clear insight it deserves. Not to be missed.

I AN B REMMER , president of the Eurasia Group and author of Us vs. Them

Kishore Mahbubanis Has China Won? is a serious contribution: reviewing strategic wisdom from Kennan to Kennedy, asking provocative, even heretical questions about Chinas rise, and counseling a world safe for diversity.

G RAHAM A LLISON , Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard University, and author of Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydidess Trap

Kishore Mahbubani has deep experience in diplomacy and international relations, an highly developed relatively rare ability to think strategically in complex settings, and a unique capacity (by virtue of his life story) to connect with and respect multiple civilizations and their values. These skills, insights, and experience are on full display in his new book, Has China Won? A provocative title, but a little misleading. In fact, he analyzes in an even-handed way the scenarios that could play out in the emerging rivalry between China and the USA. His assessment of the biases and mistakes on both sides is both brutal and crucial. It will take most readers out of their comfort zone, and that is part of its strength. There are many insights, but at the core is the proposition that the outcome over time will depend mainly on the capacity (or its absence) on both sides to understand and respect deep differences in civilizations that are built over hundreds and even thousands of years, ones that lead to varying governance structures and relative values with respect to individual freedoms, social and political stability, and more; in other words seeing the worlds through the eyes of the other. That said there is a wide range of common interests on which to build. Notwithstanding the title of the book, it is fairly clear by the end that in Mahbubanis view, either everyone (not just China and the USA) wins or no one wins. It is an important book at a crucial moment in history.

M ICHAEL S PENCE , recipient of the 2001 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences

Has China Won? is a provocative title. In his latest book, Kishore Mahbubani explains why this is in fact the wrong question to ask. Despite rising resentment and mutual misperception, both the United States and China ultimately know that war between them will be cataclysmic. In this revelatory new book, Mahbubani appeals to the deeper rationality of both great powers, arguing that the greatest challenge of our times will be to answer the question of whether humanity has won. Both American and Chinese readers will benefit from Mahbubanis wisdom.

G EORGE Y EO , former minister of foreign affairs, Singapore

Americans should heed Kishore Mahbubanis astringent advice, unwelcome as it may be: cast away illusions about eternal US primacy and exceptional virtue protected by high walls. Instead, Washington should adopt a long-term international strategy anchored in balance and cooperation; reestablish sound internal leadership and governance; win friends abroad instead of driving allies away; avoid over-commitment; and express moral modesty. Military power is not the most important weapon in the Arsenal of Democracy.

D AVID M. L AMPTON , professor emeritus, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and Oksenberg-Rohlen fellow Freeman Spogli Institute, Asia-Pacific Research Center, Stanford University

Kishore Mahbubani has long extolled what the West taught the rest of the world and how many parts of Asia, including China and India, have benefited from what they have learned. Yet no one seems more surprised at what China has learned from the US than the United States itself, which now sees China purely as a rival that threatens its global primacy. Mahbubani asks pointedly: What did China do to deserve this? He has gone further than ever before to challenge his readers to think of the consequences if the rivalry is allowed to grow unchecked.

W ANG G UNGWU , university professor, National University of Singapore

Kishore Mahbubani has a remarkable ability to see through the complacent orthodoxies that lead great nations astray. Has China Won? identifies the myths and mistakes that are undermining Chinese and American relations with each other and the world, and it offers both countries candid and clear-eyed advice for how to do better in the future. Leaders in Beijing and Washington will not like everything he has to say, but they would do well to pay close attention to it anyway. And so should you.

S TEPHEN M. W ALT , Robert and Rene Belfer Professor of International Affairs, Harvard University

We need to know how China thinks and sees itself in the world, whether we see them as our friends, as our adversary, or somewhere in between. There is no better guide for westerners to the Asian worldview than Kishore Mahbubani. He shares the wealth of his knowledge and experience in this vitally important book.

L AWRENCE H. S UMMERS , former treasury secretary and former president, Harvard University

O NE THING IS CERTAIN.

The geopolitical contest that has broken out between America and China will continue for the next decade or two. Although President Donald Trump launched the first round in 2018, it will outlast his administration. The president has divided America on all his policies, except one: his trade and technological war against China. Indeed, he has received strong bipartisan support for it, and a strong consensus is developing in the American body politic that China represents a threat to America. General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said that China probably poses the greatest threat to our nation by about 2025. He also added that it was right for the Trump administration to declare China a strategic rival.