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China, India seek peaceful rise, not hegemony, says Lee

SINGAPORE: China and India are “thinking very carefully” about ways to ensure their “sustainable rise” on the basis of “calculations [for] peace and not hegemony,” according to Singapore Prime Minister and East Asia Summit (EAS) Chairman Lee Hsien Loong.

Both China and India are key members of the EAS; and Mr. Lee, delivering the keynote address at the Asia Security Summit here on Friday, emphasised that the “best outcome” in this new Asian drama of rising powers would be the success of these growth strategies in China and India.

The Asia Security Summit, the seventh in the series called ‘Shangri-La Dialogue,’ is being organised by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). The deliberations will begin on Saturday.

Responding to questions from IISS Director John Chipman and former U.S. Ambassador to India, Robert Blackwill, Mr. Lee said: “It is possible that they [India and China] will both have great futures, but the future will belong to neither of them. Because, the world is a big place; Asia is an important part of it, but Asia is not all of it. And, America will continue to play an important role. It is the most powerful economy and will be so for decades to come. Europe ought to play an important role, its potential is there. And, within this framework, the Chinese can prosper, the Indians can prosper; and much smaller countries, including, we hope, Singapore, can prosper.”

Noting that any strategy of containment against China would not succeed, Mr. Lee said “none of the countries in the region (of Asia) wants to take sides between China and an adversary.” A constructive relationship between China and the United States was the “wish list” of not only Singapore but many others. Narrating anecdotal evidence about China’s choice of peaceful ascendance, he expressed optimism that “similar calculations must be [prevalent] in India [too].”

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China, India seek peaceful rise, not hegemony, says Lee

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