Bilahari Kausikan says US-China tensions are not a “new Cold War”

SINGAPORE: At an event earlier this week, Bilahari Kausikan sounded a note of caution regarding characterizing the present tensions between the two economic superpowers—the United States and China—as “a new Cold War.”

The former permanent secretary of the country’s foreign service, who also used to be Singapore’s permanent representative to the United Nations, underlined, however, that it’s important for countries to stay calm and be agile in seizing opportunities or getting out of harm’s way, CNBC reported.

Mr Bilahari made these remarks at VP Bank’s outlook event on Wednesday (July 17), saying that calling the present situation a new Cold War is “misleading” as the similarities with US-Soviet tensions from the last century are only skin deep.

Because of the complex nature of today’s supply chains, the US and China are in the same global system, with their competition being within that single system.

He added that the US, China, and other countries are linked together “by a historically new phenomenon and that are supply chains of a complexity, of a density and of a scope never before seen in world history,” which “is what distinguishes 21st-century interdependence from earlier periods of independence.”

Sounding a reassuring note, he also said that he knows no business leaders who believed that there would be a complete separation of ecosystems, though there could be a degree of separation in some areas such as high technology and finance.

And though the governments of China and the US may be “uncomfortable” with being interdependent with one another, he said, “You can’t kill off your rival without killing yourself. You can’t even hurt your rival without hurting yourself.”

And when other nations say they don’t want to choose sides, it means that they want to choose based on their own interests, with no need for complete alignment in either direction.

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As for Singapore, Mr Bilahari said years ago that the city-state leaned toward the US in terms of security and defence. Nevertheless, this does not necessarily mean that this is the case when it comes to other issues.

“As far as economic relations are concerned, we are completely promiscuous. [We] play with anybody wants to play with us, as long as there’s something in there for us,” he said. /TISG

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