news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

【text/guacha.com yang rong】——what do you want to say to the next us president? ——the us should give up its obsession with being number one in the world.

the american magazine foreign policy recently invited nine thinkers from all over the world to write letters of advice to the next us president. this was the answer given by danny quah, dean of the lee kuan yew school of public policy and li ka shing professor of economics at the national university of singapore.

in this "open letter", ke chengxing said that southeast asian countries will not choose sides between the united states and china, but prefer to build a multilateral peaceful world. he suggested that the united states should prioritize the well-being of its citizens, especially the vulnerable groups, rather than being obsessed with becoming the world's leading power; pursue its own interests, especially in the economic field, rather than confront china, which is a "win-win" approach.

the letter begins by congratulating the "new president" on his inauguration and praising the "many gifts" the united states has brought to the world, but then changes the tone, saying, "it is undeniable that things have changed."

the article stated that the united states once fought for multilateralism, fair competition, and common economic development, but these results now hinder the current interests and goals of the united states; the united states proposed political convergence, economic efficiency, and comparative advantage at the end of the 20th century, but now these concepts have failed to build a more prosperous and equal global society as promised.

in this regard, ke chengxing made three suggestions to the united states. "first, ask yourself what is really important; forget about the empty talk about being number one in the world," he wrote. "do you know what will change in the american people's lifestyle and the american government system if you become number two in the world? nothing will change."

he said that whether the united states takes the throne of the world's number one country or not, it will not affect the behavior of southeast asian countries and their dealings with the united states, china or other countries. "we understand that a country may become number one because it is really excellent. or, it may become number one just because it deliberately prevents other countries from rising... we have said that we will not make a choice (between the united states and china)."

ke chengxing frankly admitted that from the perspective of southeast asia, the us foreign policy and the challenges it faces at home "exist in a two-way causal relationship and mutual correlation." this is also his second suggestion, to take care of the american people first.

he questioned: "the plight of the less fortunate, the underprivileged and the vulnerable in your own society does not square with your claims of success in national economic and social development. why is your system performing so poorly that the bottom 50% of the population is barely better off today than they were a few decades ago?"

ke chengxing proposed a third suggestion, "face the world calmly." he said that this does not mean that the united states should close itself off and only regard its northern and southern neighbors as friends and the countries in the east and west as "big fish"; nor does it mean that the united states should "run around the world" to participate in global projects, leading to overexpansion, but rather that it hopes that the united states "only pursues its own interests."

“as the economist adam smith pointed out in the wealth of nations, we do not expect food on our table because we regard the butcher, the brewer, or the baker as benevolent. we depend on them to provide us with food because we know they are self-interested,” he explained.

in ke chengxing's view, only by making full use of the united states's well-developed public institutions, infrastructure and open university resources, improving the welfare of the grassroots people and providing more opportunities can the american society be once again united, which will also radiate to the united states' international influence.

on the issue of real disagreements, he added: "with all due respect, we don't want you to run around because sometimes you mess things up when you do. when you're not interested in a project, or you're not particularly good at it, or you don't understand what the rest of us want, feel free to go back to 'friends and big fish'."

the article calls on the us government to resist calling the current us-china competition a "new cold war." ke chengxing believes that unlike the us-soviet cold war, today's sino-us frictions are far from threatening the american people's way of life and undermining the us government's philosophy, but are mainly economic. the article points out that once the united states gives up its obsession with being "first," us-china exchanges will no longer require confrontation, "there is a win-win result here, that is, china continues to become richer, and you enjoy economic security."

at the end of the letter, it was mentioned that in 1967, when nixon was preparing to run for the us presidency, he wrote about china, "one billion of the most talented people on this small planet cannot live in angry isolation." ke chengxing said that similarly, at present, "we do not have the ability to build a world that leaves room for a dysfunctional and insecure america," and "we hope that the united states will integrate into our world, just as we hope that china will integrate into our world."

this article is an exclusive article of observer.com and may not be reproduced without authorization.