Advertisement
The View
Opinion
Winston Mok
Winston Mok

US-China relations: bankrupt, broken America has no room to talk

  • If China is held captive by a bankrupt ideology, as Mike Pompeo claims, how do you explain its spectacular economic achievements and growing power?
  • The US cannot win any new Cold War by demonising an ascendant China instead of addressing its own chronic problems and getting its house in order

Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
People visit the 17th China Changchun International Automobile Expo in Changchun, Jilin province, on July 13. China’s vast economic wealth and rapid recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic prove how lacking in substance US critiques of China’s “bankrupt ideology” truly are. Photo: Xinhua
Winston Mok
Is China following a bankrupt ideology, as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed in a speech at the Nixon Library? Is the United States the beacon of light it claims to be? Results speak louder than empty talk.

If China is held captive by a bankrupt ideology, how do you explain its spectacular economic achievements? If the US represents the pinnacle of virtue, how do you explain its many social problems, laid bare by Covid-19?

Leaving aside Pompeo’s personal agenda, his simplistic declaration is not based on reality. China has propelled its per capita GDP from US$156 in 1978 to more than US$10,000 last year. On a purchasing power parity basis, residents of Beijing and Shanghai enjoy per capita GDP similar to some European Union member states.
Advertisement

If China is so totalitarian, why do so many Chinese students studying abroad happily return from the “free world” to China every year after obtaining their foreign degrees? Why did Chinese students rush back from the US in the middle of the pandemic?

Western TV programmes accessible in East Germany might have contributed to German reunification. Western media is banned in North Korea, but not for the ruling Kim family and perhaps its inner circle.

00:48

‘Frankenstein’ China requires more assertive global response, says US top diplomat Pompeo

‘Frankenstein’ China requires more assertive global response, says US top diplomat Pompeo
However, Western movies and television series – as well as those from South Korea and Hong Kong – are widely available in China. In fact, the latest hit domestic TV series in China, Nothing but Thirty, featuring three women in Shanghai around 30 years old, has posher settings than South Korean dramas.
Advertisement
Select Voice
Choose your listening speed
Get through articles 2x faster
1.25x
250 WPM
Slow
Average
Fast
1.25x