Kishore Mahbubani's Asian Century

Kishore Mahbubani, a Singapore diplomat, told Asia One in 2016-08-01, that the Asian century is here to stay. Below is an extract from the report from AsiaOne.

QUOTE
"For more than 1,800 of the last 2,000 years, China and India were always the two largest economies in the world . . . the past 200 years have been a major historical aberration," the professor said.
"It's perfectly natural for China, India to resume their places . . . all aberrations come to a natural end."
China, in particular, has the ability to outstrip the economic might of the US - for decades the largest economy in the world - by as soon as 2030, Prof Mahbubani said.
. . .
He said drily: "If you read the papers, most people believe that the biggest flashpoint in the world is (in our region), and that China and ASEAN are about to go to war over the South China Sea.
"It could happen; accidents do happen and it's conceivable that a shooting match between China and the Philippines, between China and Vietnam could take place, but I'll take bets with you - it won't happen."
The reason for that, Prof Mahbubani espoused, is that "the Chinese realise the stupidest thing they can do" is to go to war, as the worst thing for China would be an effort for containment by the US.
"If there's a major conflict in the region, that will be a major geopolitical gift to the US, as it . . . would clearly embarrass China, he added. "It's in their national interest to not have a conflict in the South China Sea . . . and with no war, ASEAN will benefit as well" and the "Asian century is here to stay".
Indeed, if any Asian city has the capacity to emerge as the "capital city" of the Asian century - in the vein of New York and London - it would be our Little Red Dot, Prof Mahbubani said.
UNQUOTE

Professor Kishore Mahbubani may be a Distinguished Fellow at the Asia Research Institute (ARI), National University of Singapore (NUS), but I think he is wrong about the Asia century. With benefit of four years hindsight (2020) and knowledge of Bible prophecy, may I point out his fallacies.

1. Longevity is not eternity
   Just because China and India were the two largest economies in the world for 1,800 of the last 2,000 years does not make it a norm.


2. Software matters
   Religion, ideology, culture and pride can be a hindrance to progress. This is the reason why Europe was able to overtake Asia. This is also the reason why China and India may not resume the leadership of the world. The Asian century is over.


3. The Bible said so
   The Bible tells me that the last world empire will be the new Roman Empire. Roman Empire does not look Chinese or Indian to me. Even if I am wrong in the timing of the fulfilment of Bible prophecies, Professor Kishore Mahbubani may not be right because of the first two reasons.

Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron - for iron breaks and smashes everything - and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others. Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay. (Daniel 2:40-43 NIV)

Then in my vision that night, I saw a fourth beast - terrifying, dreadful, and very strong. It devoured and crushed its victims with huge iron teeth and trampled their remains beneath its feet. It was different from any of the other beasts, and it had ten horns. (Daniel 7:7 NLT)