Opinion

Era of common prosperity shows China is moving forward, despite what the US thinks

China has made enormous progress in the past four decades, but leaders know the job is far from done

Long-term goals executed across multiple generations have led China into an era of moderate prosperity, something the US system cannot match

3-MIN READ3-MIN

Lub Bun Chong is a partner of C Consultancy and Helios Strategic Advisors, and the author of “Managing a Chinese Partner: Insights From Four Global Companies”.

Published: 1:30am, 17 Feb 2022Updated: 2:35am, 17 Feb 2022

In 1967, US president Richard Nixon penned an article in Foreign Affairs magazine, urging a strategy of engagement with China and stating that “our goal should be to induce change”.

In 2020, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asserted that US engagement “has not brought the kind of change inside of China that president Nixon had hoped to induce”. For good measure, Pompeo supported his assertion with a litany of Chinese transgressions, including the oppression of its people.

There appears to be broad political consensus in the United States that China has not changed enough and, worse still, is moving backwards with its recent slate of policies and initiatives.

China is one of the world’s oldest civilisations, and the Chinese governance system predates the US Constitution by thousands of years. Contrary to Pompeo’s observation, China’s fate is inseparable from changes, successful or otherwise, throughout its history.