Xi Jinping is not making history – history is making him

To what does Xi Jinping truly aspire? Who does China’s “paramount leader” think he is? Xi doesn’t need fawning media coverage to mislead him into believing something he may or may not be. Whether China’s president is crowned person of the year by a self-important US magazine (such as Time) is of no importance. Xi himself must understand that he is arguably unimportant. He should not require cover stories to bolster his self-image.

For decades, perhaps our most astute geopolitical weather forecaster has been Kishore Mahbubani, who is stepping down this month as the founding dean of the highly regarded Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. His first book (essays and speeches) hit the United States in the 1990s and was titled (ironically enough), Can Asians Think? Its theme was that, with Asia coming into its own, if Westerners think the 21st century will prove a repeat of the American century, they had better think again.

Mahbubani sincerely doubts the US is psychologically prepared for that, but like it or not, China is back and we had better figure out how to deal with it or face hitting the great Chinese brick wall of history. Large as well as small nation states need to do that big rethink now. It may prove painful. Brainy Singapore, ever thinking forward, is not alone in its anguish over how to proceed. (By the way, Singapore friends: be not cranky. Heated public debate on vital issues is a sign of cultural strength, not weakness.) Other governments are into the deep think: Australia (with its panoply of think tanks and universities); Japan (missiles suddenly overhead); South Korea, sometimes so small-town, suddenly on big-time red alert.