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Holly Chik

Asia is still shackled by “mental colonisation” despite accounting for over half the global population, a former UN Security Council president has said, while warning that Taiwan remains the region’s most dangerous flashpoint.
“The big mistake that Asians made after the end of colonial rule [is assuming] that the end of physical colonisation would automatically mean the end of mental colonisation,” veteran Singaporean diplomat Kishore Mahbubani told the inaugural Penang Peace Dialogue in Malaysia on Saturday.
The lack of confidence to challenge Western-dominated narratives “continued for several decades”, he added.
But the tide may be turning. “What is happening now is a major reversal in history where the Western states are effectively losing their self-confidence and the Asian states are gaining confidence,” Mahbubani said.
However, despite this “major transition point in world history”, he said the shift of power towards Asia had yet to reach a tipping point “where the Asian states will have the greatest say in the world [in the way] that the Western states [now] do.”
Home to China and India, the world’s two most populous nations, Asia accounts for roughly 60 per cent of the global population, or 4.3 billion people.
Mahbubani also said improving China-India relations was vital for Asia’s future, with Southeast Asia needing to play a more active role in pushing for better ties between them.
“The relationship between China and India became completely frozen after [the deadly 2020 border clash]. But the good news is that things are now beginning to thaw,” he said.




Mahbubani, a distinguished fellow at the Asia Research Institute of the National University of Singapore, twice served as the city state’s ambassador to the United Nations, including two stints as Security Council president – in January 2001 and May 2002.
He said that for India to achieve its goal of becoming a manufacturing powerhouse and the century’s third great power, it should engage constructively with China, which commands about one-third of global manufacturing capacity.
Turning to regional security, Mahbubani described Taiwan as Asia’s “most dangerous issue.”
He warned that any conflict across the Taiwan Strait was likely to draw in the United States, sparking a catastrophic confrontation that would devastate Southeast Asia.
Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China and has not ruled out the use of force to achieve reunification. Most countries, including the US, do not recognise self-ruled Taiwan as an independent state, but Washington is opposed to any attempt to take the island by force and is committed to supplying it with weapons for defence.


Mahbubani urged Taiwan not to declare independence, warning that this would “start a war automatically”.
Rather, Taipei should seek creative diplomatic arrangements that preserve the island’s autonomy and way of life under reunification with mainland China in principle, he suggested.
“Taiwan should understand where the red lines are and make sure it does not cross the red lines and lead to a war,” he cautioned.
The Penang Peace Dialogue is a new annual international forum designed to foster peace and cooperation in an emerging multipolar world. The first edition this weekend brings together roughly 200 academics, policymakers and business leaders from Asia and beyond.


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Any cross-strait conflict likely to draw in US with devastating impact on Southeast Asia, Kishore Mahbubani tells Penang Peace Dialogue


Any cross-strait conflict likely to draw in US with devastating impact on Southeast Asia, Kishore Mahbubani tells Penang Peace Dialogue.


Taiwan

Taiwan remains Asia’s ‘most dangerous’ issue, former Singaporean diplomat warns

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Any cross-strait conflict likely to draw in US with devastating impact on Southeast Asia, Kishore Mahbubani tells Penang Peace Dialogue

Any cross-strait conflict likely to draw in US with devastating impact on Southeast Asia, Kishore Mahbubani tells Penang Peace Dialogue