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Sharing the world with a rising China

By Li Shen: 0 Comment(s)Print E-mail China.org.cn, October 16, 2013

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Cover of Chinese verison of 'Lee Kuan Yew: The Grand Master's Insights on China, the United States, and the World' [China CITIC Press]

Cover of Chinese verison of "Lee Kuan Yew: The Grand Master's Insights on China, the United States, and the World" [China CITIC Press]

China.org.cn: How will China and U.S. rebalance their respective foreign policies toward Asia if China becomes the dominant power in the region?

A: Economics determines a lot, but not everything. Lee Kuan Yew says that the Chinese expect Singaporeans to be more respectful of China as it grows more influential. He is very clear that Singapore has to be very flexible and ready to adapt.

China has become stronger and wealthier, much to the concern of America, and Asian countries like the Philippines, Korea and Vietnam. Lee Kuan Yew says that the U.S. has to get used to this change, even though it has never shared the world with a power of equal strength before.

But he says that China will not become integrated into the economic and security order established by the U.S. since World War Two. "China wants to be respected as China, not as an honorary member of the West." This requires the U.S. to adapt to it.

China.org.cn: According to Lee, "[China's] great advantage is its military not its economic influence." China is undertaking a new phase of economic reform which Western economists have called "Likonomics". In your observation, what are the opportunities and challenges brought by this round of reform?

A: I am very impressed with the management of Chinese economy and the economic policy. I think that the fact China's was able to sustain an annual growth rate of more than 7 percent during the global depression is amazing. But it is getting more difficult. I am looking forward to the announcement of the next "Five Year Plan". For example, the signal of investing in domestic consumption as a driver of economic growth and more opportunities for small and private enterprises compared to the state-owned ones. Both of the policies clearly make good sense. The Shanghai Free Trade Zone is a good example of showing being willing to adapt and adjust. The question will be whether the government is smart enough and powerful enough to make these adjustments because powerful vested interest groups will resist them.

China.org.cn: The Taiwan issue is one of the most challenging aspects of Sino-U.S. relations. During his meeting with Vincent Siew, honorary chairman of the Taiwan-based Cross-Straits Common Market Foundation, Chinese President Xi Jinping recently said that "we cannot pass these problems on from generation to generation." What do you think about this?

A: Lee Kuan Yew thinks that the mainland will be economically reunited with Taiwan. I think that Chinese leadership is very clever to choose an economic approach to reintegration, rather than a military one. I am impressed by Chinese government's patience on this issue. What the next step is whether there is a concrete idea about doing something sooner rather than later.

China.org.cn: Since the new generation of Chinese leadership came into power, it has launched a nationwide campaign to crack down on corruption, including sentencing high-level corrupt officials, such as Bo Xilai. How do you see this campaign?

A: Corruption is a huge problem in China, as the government said and the World Bank Transparency Report found. Lee Kuan Yew has been asked about this many times by leaders from other countries, because Singapore was once very corrupt. His advice was always the same: you have to find visible offenders and have to make an example of them. Obviously, China's problems are much greater than in Singapore, because China is a huge country while Singapore is really just a city. My bet is that Xi Jinping now sees the corruption as a big threat to the Party's rule. Lee Kuan Yew says in the book that corruption is a serious threat to the running of the Chinese economy.

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