Countries should accept that times have changed

Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's speech delivered at a regional security forum caught wide international attention as it accurately reflected the dilemma of many members of the world community caught up in the ongoing trade war between China and the United States.

Addressing this year's Shangri-La Dialogue on Friday, Lee urged the rest of the world to adjust to China's rise. "Countries have to accept that China will continue to grow and strengthen, and that it is neither possible nor wise for them to prevent this from happening," he said. His remarks are to the point. The world needs to look objectively at China's development and its growing importance on the world stage. Especially, the United States, which because of its blinkered ideological bias, refuses to view China as anything other than a rival, even a threat.

From such an ill-advised perspective, the US president and his administration have stubbornly clung to an outdated and narrow world view which sees countries in the world engaged in a zero-sum game. The US president's pet slogans such as "America First" and "making America great again" are nothing but declarations that the US political elite only cares about its own interests and the devil take the hindmost.