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A landlord seeking rent [1]
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Date: 2025-02-16
These are my random musings inspired by the following quote
“US has now willy-nilly – the image has changed from liberator to great disruptor to a landlord seeking rent.”
Those are the exact words from a longer speech by the Minister of Defense for Singapore. The whole speech is here: www.mindef.gov.sg/…
He starts out by laying out the core problem faced by smaller countries. American foreign policy is now about American hegemony (he calls it “primacy”)
I am sure you have your own characterisations of what American foreign policy is, but in my mind, it is that America's primacy has become the overriding consideration. Not that it never was, but I think that it has now become the Pole Star of foreign policy, even at the expense of bilateral ties or multilaterals. It is a great disruption, so we have got to recognise that. How countries and regions respond to this significant shift in US foreign policy bears watching.
And he goes on to say that there will be some changes.
Collectively, ASEAN as a group of 10 nations, has about 700 million people, and a combined GDP of about 4 trillion, the fifth largest in the world. So in this indeterminate phase, in the absence of a leader to protect our global commons, I think we must all expect that the progress and well-being of the global commons will suffer. To me, that is a given. It is just how much. That includes any global regime to deal with climate change.
To put things in perspective, the G7 collectively is about 28% of the world economy, and the BRICS countries are 34% (GDP measured by purchasing power parity).
ASEAN countries are about 7%. Consider them to be swing voters in a battleground state.
Singapore is also a truly multi-cultural society, and is thus well positioned to understand both East and West. Think San Francisco, or London (minus the baggage of a colonial past) as an independent nation. So when a high ranking official from Singapore says something like that, I pay attention.
As an example, Singapore’s former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew had several (rather prescient, in my view) warnings about how Americans did not understand China. Here is a snippet:
"Americans seem to think that democracy and human rights are universal values. They are not—at least, not in China."
“Americans believe their ideas are universal—the supremacy of the individual and free, unfettered expression. But they are not—never were”
“The Chinese have calculated that America does not have the strategic resolve to confront them over the long term.”
“I believe the Chinese leadership has learned that if you compete with America in armaments you will lose. You will bankrupt yourself. So, avoid it, keep your head down, and smile for 40 or 50 years.”
Lee’s comments on the Chinese attitude were motivated largely by American euphoria during China’s entry to the WTO. The American belief at the time was that China would go on to become a responsible member of the global order… an American led global order… similar to Germany and Japan. That obviously did not happen, and you can take Lee’s comments as providing some context for why.
On the first 2 quotes. I am sharing an insight from a friend of mine who has studied China for over 30 years:
For thousands of years, the Chinese have sent pilgrims/scholars to the rest of world, seeking wisdom that they could incorporate into their own lives. And with one rare exception… that of Buddhism, which the Chinese readily adopted… the Chinese have concluded that the rest of the world has nothing to offer them.
This comment may sound complementary to the Chinese… they are seeking out wisdom, after all, but it is a backhanded compliment. My friend narrates this line at dinner parties, and I watch his self-amused grin of satisfaction at an insight that impresses both Chinese and American audiences. What he leaves out is the fact (which he knows well) that a person who is always seeking out wisdom, but never finding any… is likely suffering from an overdose of arrogance. And my friend is quite aware that the Chinese did not “readily adopt” Buddhism, there is quite a gory tale associated with that, which I will skip over.
To be sure, it is a different type of arrogance than the American one, which assumes that American values are universal, and thus should be imposed on all recipients. But it is arrogance, regardless. The Chinese arrogance assumes that the world (including America) has nothing to offer to a superior Chinese approach to life.
And so the Singapore officials remarks signify that we now witnessing a struggle for primacy between two competing worldviews.
As an immigrant to the US, I am somewhat vested in saying that the US will likely win. But there are dark clouds...As the last few years have demonstrated, democracies can be subverted fairly easily with latent nationalism.
[END]
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