Singaporean scholar Kishore Mahbubani has urged Western countries to embrace China’s Global Governance Initiative (GGI) rather than reject it.
In a recent interview with CGTN, Kishore Mahbubani, a fellow at the Asia Research Institute of the National University of Singapore, noted that Global South countries, home to about 85 to 86 percent of the world's population, are amazed by China's rise over the past few decades and are actively reflecting on the lessons they can learn from its development experience.
"Even though most Western countries have been very critical of China's development, and amazingly, they still don't think they need to learn anything from China's development. If you look at the countries of the Global South, which are much more modest, they actually believe that they can learn a lot from China. And unlike the West, they also understand that China, at the end of the day, is one of the most successful civilizations in human history, and they believe that they can learn a lot by coming to China. So I'm confident that China's growth and development will eventually have a positive effect on the Global South, because it will inspire many countries in the Global South to also try and emulate China's path," Mahbubani said.
If China's development experience can help Global South countries reduce poverty, expand education, and grow their middle classes, then China's success story will be not just a blessing for itself, but also a significant contribution to the Global South, the expert said.
"I believe that all countries in the world will always try to expand their areas of influence. But it's important to emphasize that influence doesn't mean aggression or assertiveness. Influence means that you try to share your views, your ideas, and your learning with others. And so it is actually a very positive development, that as it grows and succeeds, China is not just paying attention to its own challenges, it's also paying attention to global challenges," Mahbubani said.
In our increasingly shrinking "global village," strong "village councils", namely the United Nations, are needed to carry out global governance. Yet ironically, this key institution, created and led by the West after World War II, is now being undermined by the very same Western countries, Mahbubani noted.
"It is not China or the Global South that is rejecting or undermining the United Nations. It is the Western countries that are undermining the United Nations. And frankly, by so doing, they're actually undermining their own interests in having a more secure global village. So the fact that China has launched a Global Governance Initiative is actually a gift by China to the West. And instead of rejecting it, the West should say thank you to China for launching this initiative," he said.
Singaporean expert urges West to embrace China's solution to global governance
Singaporean expert urges West to embrace China's solution to global governance
