When elephants fight, the mousedeer thrives

 SINGAPORE: There is a Malay and Indonesian saying that “when elephants fight, the mousedeer in the middle dies”.

With geopolitical tensions between the United States and China escalating sharply last week, Singapore as the mousedeer between the American and Chinese elephants will need to be especially nimble to survive....

Today, China is the focus. The anti-China narrative is stoked by uninformed and tendentious reporting by Anglophone media. It is no surprise that China is seen as an enemy by Americans.  

In the US-China conflict, much has been made of the Thucydides Trap, which holds that a rising power and an incumbent power must clash.

To characterise China as a rising power is mistaken. It is a returning power. The psychology is different. Misdiagnosing the problem risks exacerbating it. That misdiagnosis is a result of historical ignorance.

The above is from an article in CNA titled 'Commentary: Singapore, the mousedeer in the middle as US-China hostilities deepen' by Professor Walter Woon, Singapore’s Ambassador to Germany, the European Union, Belgium, the Netherlands, Greece and the Vatican between 1998 and 2006.

Traditionally, the poor mousedeer risked being trampled and crushed by the two elephants. Today's realpolitik offers the mousedeer a better chance to survive and even coming out better because China is there to provide better alternatives and options for the mousedeer. China not only is able to stand in the way of the ravaging American beast, China, being the world's biggest factory, can sell to the rest of the world all the goods and services, better and cheaper, that the world needs. The world does not need to be held hostage by the American beast when they can buy everything from China.

This tariff war started by the unthinking Trump regime is going to hurt the Americans many times more than the rest of the world and likely to bring about a faster collapse of the American economy and Empire. The poor American consumers are now forced by the authoritarian regime to buy goods from China and the world at very high prices which Trump lied, that the tariffs would be paid by China and the sellers.

On the other hand, China would now have huge advantage to sell everything to the rest of the world at lower or no tariffs prices, to benefit the whole world. This dimwit Trump is a menace not only to the world but also to the Americans. Good luck to the hillbillies.

The second point mentioned by Prof Woon on the US China conflict and the western interpretation of the Thucydides Trap is flawed from China's perspective but very real to the white savages with a DNA for wars and conquest. As pointed out by Prof Woon, the Chinese psychology and perception of the world are very different, a result of historical ignorance by the white men. Just because they were savages, does not mean that Chinese are savages. They can lie and lie to demonise China, but historically, China has no ambition of conquering or colonising any country. Or else, the Philippines would have been a part of China. It was the white savages that ravages the whole world and still doing so, committing crimes against humanity and genocide in Gaza.

But the unthinking Anglophiles would simply believe and take the white men's view that China would be like the white savages as the truth. Where is the evidence? The white men may lie and fabricate false evidence to demonise China ... the daft Anglophiles need to wake up and think and look at reality. China does not have ambition to be a world hegemon and is pushing for a multipolar world. China has studied the falls of Empires and know how futile such an aggressive adventure is and has openly said that China would NOT be a hegemon to bully the world.

The mousedeer is likely to survive this reckless tariff war and comes out better off, provided they did not choose to become cannon fodder for the American terrorists. This crisis is providing the world a great opportunity to reset and establish a new world order for the good of the Global South. The BRICS countries have its role cut out to be the alternative to the American controlled post war organisations that are now defunct and irrelevant.