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Asian Angle | Joe Biden’s America needs to learn from the world, not vice versa
- Chinese competition has exploded the ‘End of History’ myth, while Asia’s handling of coronavirus shows ‘good government’ is not an oxymoron
- If Biden is to succeed, he must recognise these facts and ignore the advice of Washington’s hubristic ‘thinking industry’
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After the global elation following Joe Biden’s victory in the US presidential election, the world seems to be in a disjointed place. On the one hand, the air is pregnant with expectations that a new dawn is approaching. America will once again be a calm, stable and rational actor in international affairs.
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On the other hand, there is also a growing realisation that Biden’s hands are tied. Donald Trump is gone. But as Martin Wolf writes, “the chances of a comeback for Trumpism, even Mr Trump himself, are good.” He sadly concludes, “[Biden’s] presidency might end up as a disappointing interlude.”
Yet, before we descend once again into doom and gloom, let us pause and ask ourselves whether it is possible for Biden to succeed.
The answer, as Barack Obama would say, is “Yes, we can.” Yet, this “can” will only be possible if America does a realistic self-analysis of its current strengths and weaknesses and realises that it has to make some fundamental U-turns, as I document in my book Has China Won?
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People on the streets of Beijing react to Biden's US presidential election victory over Trump
People on the streets of Beijing react to Biden's US presidential election victory over Trump
The first fundamental U-turn is from the “End of History” moment. With clear hindsight, we can see that this moment, flush with arrogance and hubris, generated a huge blindness to the real “hard truth” of that time: “the return of history”.
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