1. Lee Kuan Yew: The Master’s
Insights On China, the United
States, and the World
IN MEMORIAL OF MR. LEE
REST IN PEACE

2. Contents
• Who is Lee Kuan Yew
• The Future of China
• The Future of US-China Relations
• The Future of Geopolitics and Globalization

3. Who is Mr. Lee Kuan Yew
A Strategist's strategist A leader’s leader A mentor’s mentor

4. The Future of China
• Strategy to be No. 1: Peaceful Rise, ASEAN
• Major hurdle: “Straight-line extrapolations from such a remarkable
record are not realistic. China has more handicaps going forward
and more obstacles to overcome than most observers recognize.
Chief among these are their problems of governance: the absence of
the rule of law, which in today’s China is closer to the rule of the
emperor; a huge country in which little emperors across a vast
expanse exercise great local influence; cultural habits that limit
imagination and creativity, rewarding conformity; a language that
shapes thinking through epigrams and 4,000 years of texts that
suggest everything worth saying has already been said, and said
better by earlier writers; a language that is exceedingly difficult for
foreigners to learn sufficiently to embrace China and be embraced
by its society; and severe constraints on its ability to attract and
assimilate talent from other societies in the world.”

5. The Future of China
• China is not going to become a liberal democracy.
• The villages and small towns can be parliamentary democracy
• Comprehensive legal codes by 2035

6. The Future of US-China Relations
• Cooperative and Competitive
• “Americans believe their ideas are universal- the
supremacy of the individual and free, unfettered
expression. But they are not-never were. In fact,
American society was so successful for so long not
because of these ideas and principles, but because of
a certain geopolitical good fortune, and abundance of
resources and immigrant energy, a generous flow of
capital and technology from Europe, and two wide
oceans that kept conflicts of the world away from
American shores.”

7. The Future of US-China Relations
• “The baiting of China by American human rights
groups, and the threatening of loss of most-favored-
nation status and other sanctions by the US Congress
and administration for violates of human rights and
missile technology transfers…ignore differences of
culture, values, and history, and subordinate the
strategic considerations of China-US relations to an
American domestic agenda. Such a haphazard
approach risks turning China into a long-term
adversary of the US. Less sensitivity and more
understanding of the culture realities of China can
make for a less confrontational relationship.”

8. The Future of Geopolitics and Globalization
• “Americans seems to think that Asia is like a movie
that you can freeze developments out there whenever
the US becomes intensely involved elsewhere in the
world. It does not like that. If the United States
wants to substantially affect the strategic evolution of
Asia, it cannot come and go.”
• “There is no viable alternative to global integration.
Protectionism disguised as regionalism will sooner or
later lead to conflicts and wars between the regional
blocs as they compete for advantage in non-bloc
areas, like the oil countries of the Gulf. Globalism is
the only answer that is fair, acceptable, and will

10. Thank You