2023 Pardee Center Janetos Distinguished Lecture: Amb. Kishore Mahbubani

Amb. Kishore Mahbubani delivered the 2023 Anthony C. Janetos Memorial Distinguished Lecture hosted by the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future on April 11, 2023. The lecture was titled "Is the Asian Century Really Coming?"

[fannybirot]

The west doesn't understand China, that's for sure. The reasons are: 1. At the earliet stage, China was too weak and that made the west very arrogant, so they didn't even try much to understand China. 2. China was flexible to incorporate the western culture, econormic system etc., which led the west to believe China can be shaped to be a western-like country. But if one really study the Chinese, they will notice, China has since the beginning said it clearly they will learn the good from the west and discard the bad, they were never gonna totally turn themselves into a western society. Just like Kishore claims: China's thousands of years of culture backgound is deep deep rooted, you can't just change it like you wish. So the west's wish to change China has made themselves blind and.lead to more misunderstandings. 3.Because of the arrogance and ignorance, the west continue stubbornly to see China through their own lens, they educate their younger generations to continue and even push for more extreme misinterpretations of China, which lead to more and more and more misunderstanding. The west claims to have the free speech, but they only listen to themselves. They don't care what the Africans say, what the Latin Americans say, what the arabians say, and of course they don't have any patience to listen to the Chinese really. The Chinese people say something, they definitely won't believe a word, they interpret with the western.lens and emotionally over exaggerate on western media, which only lead to more misunderstandings.
Relationship is a both sides thing. If one side never wanna understand the other, there won't be any understanding.
I think the west didn't, don't and won't understand China, because there is no intention to do it.

[johnlee-yojc]

A HUGE fan of the great Kishore Mahbubani because unlike other "experts", he is honest!

[ahmedakhan]

As always Kishore Mahbubani shows that he is one of the greatest Asian scholars of our times! Excellent lecture and so very true!

[zhengpinghu]

I have to salute to Pardee Center for providing the platform for Kishore Mahbubani whose lecture may not sound pleasant to American audience's ears. This kind of openness used to be the strength of the US, but the room for a healthy debate is less and less in the US.

[louiselu]

THANK YOU, Pardee Center, for the courage to have such an esteemed diplomat as Kishore Mahbubani to address an American audience. Nearly none of the other institutions would dare to entertain any views that even slightly deviates from the mainstream anti-China rhetoric.

[qingzhou]

Kishore is brilliant, clear, concise and polite as usual.

[andeg]

In today's world, where the lines between truth and falsehood can often become blurred, a great man like Kishore with clarity and honesty is a rare and valuable gem.

[fchau]

China, India, ASEAN and other countries in Asia have been very focused on economic development and want peace. The US on the other hand, is focused on wars, proxy wars, establishing military bases around the world such that it is grossly over stretched, all with the EU dutifully following along. In doing this, the US is solely focused on maintaining its hegemony around the globe. No surprise then that things have changed dramatically for these different continents, as the US and EU seem to have lost their way through wrong priorities and poor/mediocre leaders lacking in vision.

[myloooly]

😀Always like to hear from the wisdom from Prof. Kishore.

[miguellines]

From Venezuela with ❤️ to every Asian.

[fchau]

Listening to the lecture and the question/answer session after is so inspiring. Makes you want to get up and go to work immediately, with a focus on the good of the society at large. Thank you Amb. Mahbubani.

[reginaldominare]

Excellent class and excellent questions congratulations.

[tinyRedLeaf]

Ambassador Mahbubani made a very good point about how the Chinese are actually more alike to the Americans than the Japanese are. Entrepreneurship, for example, comes very naturally to the Chinese, and in private enterprise, the Chinese are also very quick to abandon what doesn't work and to innovate until they find something that will sell. The Japanese, in comparison, are much more conservative and tradition-bound and slow to change.

The last question, about what should be a new framework for analysing China, is actually very good. I'm no scholar, but I would suggest, for a start, to leave behind the typical Western idea of analysis from the perspective of ideology. It ought to be very clear that the Chinese aren't as rabidly ideological as Americans are today, for example. Where else can you find an ostensibly communist party running a market economy in everything but name? The way to think about the modern Chinese communist party is to think of it as the analogue of the ancient scholastic bureaucracy of Imperial China. The Chinese have a deeply ingrained respect for scholarship and education, and have long since held learned scholars in the highest regard. That is precisely why Ambassador Mahbubani's assistant bemoaned the loss of her opportunity to qualify for CCP membership -- the Chinese today continue to think of the Party as the modern iteration of an ancient institution, which explains their high levels of trust in the bureaucracy.

So, that's one starting point for understanding modern China. I would further suggest a need to understand the Chinese mindset with regard to law and order, which stems from a tradition that is entirely alien to that of the West. Western legal tradition traces its roots to the Roman Empire. Chinese legal tradition evolved independently on its own track, and took virtually no reference from Rome. This, I suspect, lies at the heart of much of the misunderstanding between China and the West -- the two cultures have very fundamental differences in the way law is crafted and applied, and used in daily life. Bridging this difference would require looking at Chinese history with a fresh pair of eyes, free of Western assumptions, and that is understandably difficult for many Western scholars of China.

[Lixie-hiuq]

Great lecture and fair view of China ❤

[diwanegautamanand]

What a brilliant session by a very talented and rational man. Stay inspiring. Mr Kishore Mahbubani. 👌⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[anjunadeep.]

Gotta love how Kishore's answers slapped the face of those who asked the mindless questions.

[jych-dbiy]

vow, amazing Professor, so deeply observatory!

[clementsliu]

couldn't agree more with the last chinese questioner, 1:25:00 that professor kishore mahbubani understands china better than most western scholars, that westerners see china through their own lens, they don't understand china, and yes, they need to revolution thier whole paradigm of research about china.

[Daydayup]

Really love Prof. Kishore Mahbubani's speeches. He always got the points. Thanks for his wisdom.

[gingermintrose]

Brilliant, as always. Professor Mahbubani!