“The Chinese government is a despicable, parasitic, brutal, brass-knuckled, crass, callous, amoral, ruthless and totally totalitarian imperialist power that reigns over the world’s leading cancer factory, its most prolific propaganda mill and the biggest police state and prison on the face of the earth.”
This is the Guardian’s distillation of Dr Peter Navarro’s views on China from his writings and statements. Who is Dr Peter Navarro? United States President Donald Trump has appointed him as the head of the new National Trade Council. It doesn’t take a political genius to surmise that with Mr Trump making such provocative appointments, US-China relations will go through a rough patch in 2017.
So what should Singapore do?
Kishore Mahbubani is Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
This article was first published on The Straits Times on 11 February 2017.