Jing in the Opinion pages of today’s South China Morning Post.
Sub-headline:
Instead of starting another cold war or falling into a Thucydides Trap,
the US – and China – should rise above
the kind of great power rivalry that has led to bloodshed
in the past and address the perilous state of global affairs
Text:
There is a consensus that Washington has woken up to the Chinese threat, and that a new cold war is inevitable – if, in fact, it has not yet begun.
Regardless of the different paths that the United States and China have taken, John Mearsheimer projected that China’s journey to modernisation would mimic America’s march to hegemony. In his theory of offensive realism, the international system is anarchic and states are driven to seek world domination. Graham Allison has also warned of a
Thucydides Trap, in which the great power rivalry inevitably ends in bloodshed.
* Jing Lee is a Hong Kong-based investment banker and lawyer. She has held senior management positions with various global financial groups, and has over 30 years’ experience of financial-market-related matters in the Asia-Pacific region.
