Kishore Mahbubani gave us a tremendous and enlightening presentation. I agree with many of his comments having traveled through China and spent considerable time in Hong Kong. The U.S. should keep its form of government to itself - it isn't perfect. Professor Mahbubani's emphasis on understanding the history of China is so important.

I agree, Don. One of the best. I feel we are on to something with our showcasing perspectives from those abroad. And so much to be learned that is denied us when we hear the same US perspectives over and over.

I thought today's speaker was one of the best we've had. He was thoughtful, knowledgable, and clearly spoken. Thanks.

Excellent comments, Tracy. There was much to learn today and much for us to grasp in his wisdom. It must be extremely frustrating for other countries, allies and adversaries alike, to have any coherent sense of where America stands. We don't understand our own issues ourselves.

Thanks for sharing your comments.

Professor Mahbubani's presentation and responses to questions were both informed and refreshing, the latter because we (as WACD members) were exposed to points-of-view coming from an East Asia/Pacific resident with considerable insight to the past/present cause-and-effect scenarios associated with US - China relations. We have positive/negative input to share here as follows.....

Of course, history played a large role for CCP leadership to formulate and fine-tune its 21st century strategy. The "century of humiliation" is obviously not easily forgotten - but - the foreign policy and strategies of any aspiring nation on this planet cannot be driven by emotional factors alone.

As implied in the presentation, aside from population size and economic inertia, China's main advantage is patience and a long-term-view. Such traits are notably missing for our own country, now floundering on issues including but not limited to cancel-culture, massive entitlement growth, 20-year wars, climate change, mitigation measures to neutralize the debilitating effects of a pandemic, etc., etc. The one-party system in China, with dictatorial rule and massive media control tends to minimize the messy and open debate process allowed by modern democracies.

So, this session with the professor was too short, too limited and too one-sided. For example, China has excessively violated World Trade Organization governance regarding IP theft, dumping and subsidization of commercial enterprises - which contributed to the Trump administration volley of trade sanctions and tariffs. Moreover, China's Belt and Road Initiative is plagued with inordinate ownership of developing world country assets and boundless interest rates that have been long criticized by multilateral development banks and our US State Department. And lastly, the root cause of the Covid-19 pandemic and millions of related global deaths has yet to be resolved, mainly due to the refusal of the CCP to provide database information and transparent interviews with Wuhan Lab staff.

We cannot let China resolve its own destiny. Too many uncontrolled, non-transparent moving parts without internal or external checks and balances - coupled with insufficient freedom of speech.