The diplomat, philosopher, and author—whom Foreign Policy has ranked among the top 100 global thinkers, and who has also served, among other roles, as President of the UN Security Council representing his home country, Singapore—spoke with Natasa Bastea and the newspaper TA NEA on the occasion of the recent publication of his book Has China Already Won?
Read an excerpt below and the full interview HERE.
Let’s start with Europe. What do you think about the changes happening around us and the European Union?
I will be honest with you so that I can be useful. Europe dominated the world for 200 years—from 1800 to around 2000. In the 19th century, it colonized every corner of the globe, and in the 20th century, it continued to dominate. But in the 21st century, everything has changed. This is a statistic every European should know. I’ll give you an example: in 2000, the European Union was seven times larger than China economically. Now they are roughly the same size. By 2050, Europe will be half the size of China. And yet it speaks condescendingly about China, even though it needs to show respect.
Over the past 200 years, the Chinese made this effort to understand, because they recognized that the West dominated the world. By understanding this and other factors, they rose to become the second-largest economy in the world. I have the impression that the West does not make an effort to understand China, but instead constantly moralizes, asking: When will China become a democracy? When will it respect human rights? When will it become like us? But China will never become like Europe.
But aren’t Europeans right when they speak about principles and respect for human rights?
When someone has principles, they must remain true to them when it is not easy. Europe does not hesitate to preach to weaker states. But when the first modern developed country to reintroduce torture was the United States in 2003 at Guantanamo, not a single European country demonstrated its principles. Not one. The rest of the world sees Europe as a pastor who preaches marital fidelity but is himself unfaithful. When you have principles, you must act according to them. I will give you a second example. I remember the massive waves of anger—which were, of course, justified—when Russians killed hundreds of children in Ukraine.
Now, thousands of children have been killed in Gaza. Shouldn’t European leaders be condemning these crimes every day? The rest of the world thinks that Europe’s inaction on Gaza has stripped it of its moral advantage and damaged its reputation as a principled power. So I think it is somewhat troubling to see Europeans behave as though they have the right to lecture the rest of the world. Europe needs to learn the art of humility.