【點新聞報道】曾任新加坡常駐聯合國代表、現任新加坡國立大學亞洲研究所特聘院士馬凱碩（Kishore Mahbubani），25日在香港帶來一場精彩的英文主題演講，題目是《中國能否在競爭中超過美國？─探討這兩個大國在政治、經濟、社會和文化方面的相對實力》。

美國高吹的「民主」似乎總能贏得輿論，然而，馬凱碩在演講中指出，事實上美國的政治體系早已有了一個根本性的變化，「美國的政治體制已經從民主體制轉變為金權政治，我也不是唯一一個這麼說的人」。

馬凱碩表示，近年來，中美競爭加速是一個不爭的事實，他比較中美兩國體制，形容中美競爭與其說是「民主體制和共產體制之間的較量」，更像是「精英領導體制和金權政治的較量」，而哪個體制更好，則要觀察體制背後的社會情況。

馬凱碩解釋，美國所謂的「民主」實際上是罔顧國家與人民整體利益，其社會指數就說明一切。「許多在已發展社會永遠不會出現的社會現象都在美國發生，預期壽命已經下降，貧窮率開始變高，諾貝爾獲獎者安格斯·迪頓所說的『絕望之死』現象也在不斷上升... ...從這方面來看，美國並不是一個運轉良好的國家。」他指出，美國也是近十幾年來底層50%人民的生活水平數一直停滯不前的主要已發展國家，現在的政體無非是服務富豪的政治遊戲。 馬凱碩認為，中國走「精英領導體制」，人盡其才，將最優秀的人才用在國家最重要的位置上；相比之下，在美國，即使是完全沒有資質的人，也可以當總統，「說白了就是特朗普，他在2016年贏得美國大選，但在中國是完全不可能的。」

馬凱碩說，在中國，沒有管理過一個省、沒有完成一些重大艱難任務的人，是不會被賦予更大責任。他以中國過去幾十年的社會發展舉例，中國的社會不斷進步，甚至完成了世界上最大的扶貧項目，有超過8億中國人擺脫了絕對貧困，與美國的高貧窮率形成了鮮明對比。「從這點就能看出，中美領導素質的差距，思想水平的差距，中國的領導人是非常了不起的。」他認為，與中國的精英領導體制相比，美國這樣一種富豪統治的金權政治，顯然是處於劣勢的。

Hong Kong has ‘strategic ambiguities’ to navigate US-China rivalry: Singapore’s Kishore Mahbubani

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3218330/hong-kong-has-strategic-ambiguities-navigate-us-china-rivalry-singapores-kishore-mahbubani

• At a Hong Kong forum, the retired Singaporean diplomat addressed issues such as the prospect of ‘de-dollarisation’ of global trade to tensions in the Taiwan Strait
• Hong Kong ‘enjoys the status’ of ‘one country, two systems’, but has to ‘work very hard’ to convince the US that it remains autonomous, Mahbubani says

Hong Kong

 

 Bhavan Jaipragas   25 Apr, 2023

 

Speaking at a forum in Hong Kong, Kishore Mahbubani addressed a wide range of issues, from the prospect of “de-dollarisation” of global trade to the tensions in the Taiwan Strait. Photo: Handout

Hong Kong’s special status grants it “strategic ambiguities” to navigate the US-China rivalry, but it needs to do more to convince Washington’s power brokers that it retains autonomy in critical areas, the prominent China watcher Kishore Mahbubani has said.

Speaking at a forum in Hong Kong, the retired Singaporean top diplomat addressed a wide range of issues, from the prospect of “de-dollarisation” of global trade to the tensions in the Taiwan Strait.

Asked on how Hong Kong could best navigate the escalating rivalry between Beijing and Washington, Kishore noted during the question-and-answer session that the city – as part of China – was obliged to abide by national security “red lines”.

解说词

if you study how the American political system operates and how the Chinese
political system operates beneath the surface what you see is something quite
different, so the United States for example, functionally has gone from being a democracy towards becoming a plutocracy now this is a very fundamental change I want to emphasize I'm not the only one saying this, Paul Walker said this, the Nobel laureges of stiglitz says this, Martin wolf says this and the the danger of becoming a plutocracy is that decisions are made in the society not to benefit the hundred percent of the people but to benefit the top 10 to 20 percent only
and the data therefore shows that in the
United States actually United States is
the only major developed country where
the average income of the bottom 50
percent has remained stagnant for
decades
and other social indicators indicate
lots of problems in the society life
expectancy has come down this never
happens in developed societies
and uh you know if you look at the
poverty rates and what Angus did in the
Nobel Laureate Called Death by despair
they're rising in the United States so
United States in that sense is not a
well-functioning democracy
and that's why you as a result there
have been so much anger in the body
politics you get populism surfacing
Donald Trump winning the elections in
2016 and that's how he doesn't win in
2024.
unfortunately the chances of him
uh winning are not zero so that's on the
United States side and on the Chinese
side functionally
the
Chinese political system has become what
I call a meritocracy and meritocracy is
one where the best people are chosen to
serve in positions of leadership in the
society
and as you know in the United States you
can be completely unqualified and you
can become president
exhibit a Donald Trump
but in in China is impossible
in China if you haven't run a province
if you haven't done some serious
assignments you will not be given
greater responsibilities
so therefore you can see that the
quality of leadership and quite often
the quality of Mind of the leaders
within the Chinese political system is
actually quite remarkable today
and and so therefore instead of it found
being a contest just purely between
within democracy and a Communist party
system it's actually a contest between
the meritocracy and a plutocracy and
then we have to see which society
performs better and if you look at the
social indicators which are very key
indicator you will see that the social
indicators in many ways uh this the
societal improvements in China are quite
remarkable and actually have been
remarkable over the last 30 to 40 years
and China as you know has just more
people out of poverty than any other
Human Society has since human history
began so this is where this is why the
contest and the political Dimension is
also very complex