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Opinion | China should free itself of ‘zero-sum thinking’ and help create new rules for a multipolar world

  • Beijing shouldn’t use the China-US binary to define the world but instead forge ties with other Asian nations without behaving like a big power or causing anxiety among smaller neighbours
  • Many Asian countries want China to treat them as brothers and sisters who share a common identity and similar security concerns, Malaysia’s Deputy Defence Minister Liew Chin Tong says

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US aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan conducts security and stability operations in the South China Sea. Photo: AFP

The world is at a historic juncture. When the Berlin Wall fell in November 1989, it signified the effective end of the cold war and the emergence of a world order in which the United States was able to act as the world’s sole superpower. In many ways, 2019 appears to be the year in which the world is again in “reset” mode.

The US now feels uncertain about whether it is the only superpower in the world, and it has thus been acting more and more unpredictable in recent years. China is now a recognised counterweight to American supremacy, but it is not the only one: other actors such as Russia and Iran are also challenging the US as well. Meanwhile, countries such as Japan, India, Pakistan, Turkey, and, of course, the European states, while nominally US allies, may not necessarily act according to Washington’s instruction.

At first glance, everything looks confused and there are already predictions of a coming cold war between the world’s two largest economies: the US having labelled China as a “strategic competitor” two years ago.

But the first lesson to learn about the multipolar world in which we now live is that each nation has its own agency, its own interests and its own preferences. So it is all of us who will shape the new world order and press the “reset” button together. One example of this change can be seen in the warming relations between Japan – a US ally – and China, despite rising US-China tensions over the past two years.

China continues to rise in both influence and significance, and will definitely play a major role in international relations in the decades to come. To a large extent, its choices will shape the future of the region and it is my fervent hope that Beijing will not choose to define the world as a China-US binary.

China should try to break free of such a dichotomy and instead forge ahead with other Asian nations, without behaving like a big power or causing anxiety among its smaller neighbours – many of whom would like to see it embark on a whole new path and start treating them as brothers and sisters who share a common identity and similar security concerns.

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