.png)
American Democracy Versus Chinese Governance: The Ultimate Contest
- Kishore Mahbubani, The Diplomat
- May 31
- 2 min read
U.S. democracy is viewed as failing, while Chinese governance is seen as succeeding. And while Trump’s presidency may be a symptom of that trend, it’s not the cause.
The largest geopolitical contest ever seen in human history – the China-U.S. contest – will accelerate and gain momentum in the coming decades. As I documented in my book “Has China Won?” this contest is driven by deep structural forces. American and Chinese presidents may come and go, but the contest will continue – of this, there’s no doubt.
What is doubtful is who will win: China or the United States?
There’s also no doubt about the critical factor that will determine the outcome of this contest. This was best spelled out by George Kennan way back in 1947 when he was advising his fellow Americans what would ultimately determine the outcome of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. He said that for the U.S. to succeed, it was vital for Americans to “create among the peoples of the world generally the impression of a country which knows what it wants, which is coping successfully with the problems of its internal life and with the responsibilities of a World Power, and which has a spiritual vitality capable of holding its own among the major ideological currents of the time.”
In the end, Kennan proved to be remarkably prescient. The United States won the Cold War against the Soviet Union not because of its military arsenal, but because U.S. society was undoubtedly more vibrant than Soviet society. Indeed, the Soviet Union’s GDP, even at its peak, never exceeded 40 to 50 percent of U.S. GDP. Even more critically, the American people saw a greater improvement in their standard of living than their Soviet counterparts did. Given this stunning success in the Cold War, many Americans, including thoughtful American commentators, assume that the United States will also naturally succeed in the contest against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
This conventional wisdom in leading American minds is based on three fundamental assumptions. The first is that U.S. democracy is in a healthy state and is inherently superior to any non-democratic system like China’s. The second is that the CCP cannot possibly create a good society with “spiritual vitality” in China. The third is that the rest of the world, which makes up around 80 percent of the world’s population, will naturally admire the U.S. system over the Chinese system.
All three of these assumptions need to be reconsidered.
Read an extended version of this story at the link below.
(c) 2025, The Diplomat
Comments