US using trade war to stop China overtaking it, ex-Singapore diplomat says

Kishore Mahbubani says the US could have solved its trade dispute with China if it wanted to, but it is now a ‘geopolitical contest’ - SCMP

THE United States’ ultimate goal in its trade war with China may be to prevent its emerging rival from overtaking it as the world’s greatest economic power – and hence secure its leading position in the current world order, a former Singapore diplomat has said.

Kishore Mahbubani, who was Singapore’s permanent representative to the United Nations and also the president of the UN Security Council, told the This Week in Asia that political imperatives lie at the centre of what it appears to be a “trade” conflict between the world’s two largest economies.