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Articles by Jean-Pierre Lehmann
The Myth of Asia: The Absence of an Asian Intellectual Space
There is no such thing as common Asian values, a uniform Asian paradigm or a collective Asian dynamic. The space that covers Asia is far too diverse to allow for generalization. What is true is that the last decade has seen a very intensive integration of Asian markets pretty much across the continent, from Yemen to Japan. East Asia (especially China) is the biggest consumer of West Asian oil.
China in My Life — A Personal Journey: The 1950s - The Globalist
The Chinese Communist Party turns 100 today. The Globalist takes this opportunity to republish an essay by the late Asianist and educator, Jean-Pierre Lehmann, the first of a multi-part series. In it he recalls his experiences in the 1950s and 1960 with an impoverished China that had recently turned communist. 1949 When I was four years old, my parents took my sister, my maternal grandmother and myself by boat to Yokohama, Japan.
Global Focus: Religion
There are few things as universal around the world as the existence of some form of religious faith. We present our top 10 features on the topic, analyzed from multiple perspectives, by a variety of our contributors. 1. Religion as a Globalizing Force In what ways was religion the first force that helped to globalize the world? By Max Stackhouse | April 7, 2010 2. A Protestant View of Globalization What prevents many Christians from developing a theological perspective on today’s globalized world?
October 2049: The 100th Anniversary of the People’s Republic of China
China is the most important country in the world in this first half of the 21st century. I know this statement can rankle people – especially those from countries vying for that position. But first, it does not imply any value judgment. And second, it would appear to be pretty incontestably true. 2049 will mark the 100th anniversary of the 1949 founding of the People’s Republic of China – whether or not the PRC then still exists in its present form.
China in My Life — China in the 21st Century - The Globalist
China’s economic relationship with the United States borders on the surreal. On the one hand, the U.S. economy is still significantly bigger than China’s. And on a GDP per capita basis, there is no comparison — the United States is hyper-rich, China is (comparatively) dirt-poor. Yet, the two economies have become highly interdependent. The Chinese are highly present in the U.S. economic scene — in virtually everything from T-shirts to T-bills.
The Globalist's Top Thirteen Features by Jean-Pierre Lehmann - The Globalist
br> br> China in My Life — A Personal Journey: The 1950s By Jean-Pierre Lehmann | How does the emergence of China look through the prism of a Westerner’s life? br> By Jean-Pierre Lehmann | What is the value of liberalism in a global society? br> br> October 2049: The 100th Anniversary of the People’s Republic of China By Jean-Pierre Lehmann | What will China look like a century after Mao’s victory in 1949?
China in My Life — A Personal Journey: The 1980s - The Globalist
In the early 1980s, I moved from the history department in a British university to the French business school, INSEAD. The school felt the need to have someone who understood Asia and could instruct MBA students and executives on the driving forces and dynamics of that part of the world. Japan was the main focus of attention — and apprehension. Publications on the secrets of Japanese management were being produced en masse.
China in My Life — A Personal Journey: The 1970s - The Globalist
In the 1970s, China became more and more mainstream as center-right politicians came to call on Mao in Beijing. It was increasingly de rigueur for a politician to be seen toasting Mao — politicians such as Britain’s Prime Minister Edward Heath, French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing and many others expressed positive views of Maoist China. The Chinese Maoist model enjoyed about a decade of fashion.
China in My Life — A Personal Journey: The 1960s - The Globalist
In 1967, I went from Southeast Asia to Oxford for my doctorate. Japan was by then, in the full surge of its “economic miracle.” The time I had spent there the previous year had awakened a considerable personal curiosity in Japanese history. I did my thesis on the transformation of Japan during the late Edo and early Meiji periods (1850-1885). Throughout the 1970s I taught Asian history at Stirling University in Scotland.
China in My Life — A Personal Journey: The 1950s - The Globalist
When I was four years old, my parents took my sister, my maternal grandmother and myself by boat to Yokohama, Japan. We went from France’s port city of Le Havre to New York, then crossed the entire United States by land, to take a ship from San Francisco. The year was 1949 — the year of China’s Liberation. On the way to Japan, we stopped in Hong Kong. Later on, I found myself returning to Hong Kong throughout the 1950s.
All eyes on the dragon and the bear, Opinion News & Top Stories - The Straits Times
Since the beginning of this century, signs have been appearing that seemed to herald the erosion of "the West" as the fulcrum of world order. Last year, with Brexit, Mr Donald Trump and other vicissitudes, the signs became unmistakable. The narrative of the 21st century will be written in Eurasia.
University challenge: Asia in the scales of global knowledge, Opinion News & Top Stories - The Straits Times
The Times Higher Education Supplement has published its 2018 World University Rankings. Rankings are rankings are rankings. They are not holy writ. Still, they can be interesting fodder for drawing some interpretations and implications. I admit I may be partly biased as Oxford has come out No. 1. (I was at Oxford from 1967 to 1970 and did my doctorate there.) The rankings are based on five key criteria: teaching, research, citations, income from industry and international outlook.
Interesting Times
This story appears in the September 2017 issue of Forbes Asia. Subscribe THERE IS AN ARAB PROVERB, inspired by the Koran, that says, "He who predicts the future lies, even if he tells the truth." In other words: If you make a prediction and it turns out right, it's sheer luck, mate! With that caveat, let me offer not a prediction but a hypothesis. On the basis of current trends, it would seem the world is experiencing one of its most profound transformations in history.
Why world needs to study China
Jean-Pierre Lehmann says the country's centrality in our 21st-century world makes it imperative that outsiders understand what is shaping its views and decisions, and Hong Kong could do more to facilitate such learning Far from ushering in a "new world order", so far the 21st century has been marked by turbulent uncertainties. There are very few things on which a consensus could arise – even on the most critical issues. For example, will there be war, or not, and, if so, between who?
The Empires continue to strike back as international order continues to collapse, Opinion News & Top Stories - The Straits Times
As I arrived, at the end of last month, on the heavenly island of Ile-de-Re off the Atlantic coast of France, surrounded by my grandchildren for part of our summer break, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced he was expelling 755 United States diplomats.
The Empires continue to strike back..., Opinion News & Top Stories - The Straits Times
As I arrived, at the end of last month, on the heavenly island of Ile-de-Re off the Atlantic coast of France, surrounded by my grandchildren for part of our summer break, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced he was expelling 755 United States diplomats.
Multipolar anarchy to fill gap between hegemons?, Opinion News & Top Stories - The Straits Times
The two architects of the post-World War II order were British prime minister Winston Churchill and American president Franklin Delano Roosevelt. They met (for the first time) aboard the heavy cruiser USS Augusta in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland (Canada), and from there on Aug 14, 1941, two years after the outbreak of war, issued what came to be known as The Atlantic Charter. The Atlantic Charter is undoubtedly one of history's most outstanding documents.
Is Japan out of sync with developments in the world?
This file photo taken on April 07, 2017 shows US President Donald Trump (R) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) shaking hands during dinner at the Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach, Florida. Sunshine in US-China relations under Trump seems to extend beyond trade I spent March and April at Hong Kong University teaching my course on globalisation and Asia.
Japan risks isolation in the Asia-Pacific, Opinion News & Top Stories - The Straits Times
I spent March and April at Hong Kong University teaching my course on globalisation and Asia. This coincided with a number of events and developments in this fast-moving and "Vuca" - volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous - world, including the Mar-a-Lago summit that was much discussed in class.
What's Next For ASEAN
IN THE CONCLUSION of The ASEAN Miracle: A Catalyst for Peace (NUS Press, 2017), authors Kishore Mahbubani & Jeffery Sng state: "If such an imperfect corner of the world can deliver both peace and prosperity to its 625 million citizens, the rest of the world can surely replicate ASEAN's imperfect record." On August 8, ASEAN will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of its founding when the representatives of the original five nations--a Buddhist (Thai), a Catholic (Filipino), two Muslims...
China, US: Same planet but different worlds, Opinion News & Top Stories - The Straits Times
It is banal by now to say that China and the Umited States form the world's most critical bilateral relationship. Thus, last week's summit at Mar-a-Lago, Florida, was watched throughout the world with baited breath. In one important respect, the US-China relationship illustrates a historical pattern of rivalry between the dominant power and the rising power, which has generally resulted in war.
Europe in turmoil, and what that means for Asia, Opinion News & Top Stories - The Straits Times
Peter Frankopan's excellent book The Silk Roads: A New History Of The World reminds us that through much of history, Europe was a relatively backward region on the western periphery of the Eurasian continent. Most of the "action" - economic, political, cultural, scientific, military, etc - occurred in major centres of "Asia". By Asia, I mean the huge eastern chunk of the Eurasian continent: Mongolia, China, South Asia, Central Asia, Persia, the Arab world.
In search of an East Asian geopolitical miracle
East Asia has amazed the world with its economic miracles. But the region must now overcome its geopolitical challenges. In the wake of World War II, Japan was widely assumed to be “finished”, South Korea was a basket case of underdevelopment, and China was chaotic and poor — indeed, the terms “Chinese” and “poor” were held to be synonymous. Taiwan was hardly worth consideration economically notwithstanding its importance geopolitically.
Covert War in Laos
A Great Place to Have a War: America in Laos and the Birth of a Military CIA by Joshua Kurlantzick (Simon & Schuster) is a must read. One learns an enormous amount from this book. As a quite close observer of East Asia for more than half a century, I did not know that the CIA had provided military training to Chinese Muslims and Tibetans (to "harass" Chairman Mao's regime). What does that have to do with the war in Laos in the 1960s?
The empires strike back, Opinion News & Top Stories - The Straits Times
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to the United States, bearing tribute in the form of billions of dollars of pledged direct investments that will create thousands of jobs, raises an intriguing question. While China and the US were allied against Japan during World War II, will the US and Japan ally against China in World War III? This is not a forecast but it is a not implausible scenario.
Global Trade at a Crossroads - The Globalist
In the last few years, my work has taken me regularly to Bosnia-Herzegovina. While there, I always visit the bridge in Sarajevo where Gavrilo Princip assassinated Austria's Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914. His act set in motion a chain of events that ultimately triggered World War I. My visit to the bridge is usually all the more poignant that I often tend to be in Sarajevo precisely on that date.
Is Turkey "Enlightened" Enough to Join the EU? - The Globalist
When I was a child in the 1950s, my parents would take the family for holidays to Spain. On the road south of Perpignan, one could see graffiti stating: "Africa begins at the Pyrenees." Compared to northern Europe, Spain was much poorer, much more religious — and a military dictatorship to boot. Though it was geographically incorrect to place Spain in Africa, doing so in many other ways did reflect reality.
Beyond Economic Integration: European Lessons for Asia Pacific? - The Globalist
Well over a century ago, John Hay, who served as U.S. Secretary of State from 1898 to 1905, wrote: “The Mediterranean is the ocean of the past, The Atlantic, the ocean of the present, And the Pacific, the ocean of the future.” Following the Spanish-American War (1898), Hay ensured that the Philippines became an American colony, thus providing the US with a base in Asia Pacific. Furthermore, in 1899, he announced the “Open Door Policy” in China.
Europe and the Arab World in the 21st Century - The Globalist
Charles Darwin wrote, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” I have to admit that the first time I read this was not in On the Origin of Species, but on a wall in the foyer of the main building of Koç University in the outskirts of Istanbul.
Why Some Nations Grow Fast (and Others Don't) - The Globalist
Joe Studwell, in his excellent opus “How Asia Works” (2013), compellingly debunks the idea that there is any such thing as an Asian economic model or indeed even an East Asian economic model. In essence, there are two East Asia’s, one in the Northeast, which includes four successful historical economic narratives, the other in the Southeast. In the latter region, apart from the city-state of Singapore, no economy has succeeded to rise to first world status.
London and Beijing: A Polluted Tale of Two Cities - The Globalist
The term “airpocalypse” has been widely and fittingly applied to Beijing. Images of barely visible skylines, masked citizens and uncannily quiet streets, where pollution levels surge beyond dangerous to “off index,” have shown the pervasiveness and virulence of the problem. In many respects, the tale of Beijing is a variation on industrialization themes that go back to the origins of the industrial revolution. A “green” industrial revolution has never occurred anywhere on Earth.
Tibet and 21st Century Water Wars - The Globalist
The crucial global role that Asia will play in the 21st century cannot be underestimated. The pivot of global economic power is shifting east. Asia represents the new arena for analysis, power and influence. The narrative of the coming Asian century is dominated by a variety of factors — rising economic power, demography, ecology, fierce resource competition, water and food supply and security, as well as increasing military expenditure.
The Business of Corruption - The Globalist
The view from my hotel room in Yaoundé, Cameroon is pretty distressing. There is a small park, full of trash. I see people stopping to urinate as they pass through. This country, like most of Sub-Saharan Africa, is very poor. I came here to speak to a conference on trade, investment, entrepreneurship and development.
The Donald Trump And Xi Jinping Show
On January 17, Xi Jinping, Secretary General of the Chinese Communist Party and President of the People’s Republic of China, spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos. There, he extolled the great benefits of economic globalization. In an appeal for openness, inclusiveness and finding trade-offs between efficiency and equity, Xi rejected the zero-sum view of the world economy: “We must remain committed to free trade and investment. We must promote trade and investment liberalization.
US-China trade war looms, Opinion News & Top Stories - The Straits Times
The West's double standards and hypocrisy with respect to the rest of the world generally, and China in particular, never cease to appal me. In a public speech in September 2005, Mr Robert Zoellick, at the time deputy secretary of state, prior to that the United States trade representative, and subsequently president of the World Bank, urged China to become a "responsible stakeholder" in the international system.
The New Word Disorder Puts Asia In Uncharted Territory
The world we observed in 2016 is amazing and frightening. This was not what was supposed to happen. When the Soviet Union collapsed and the Cold War ended, the presumption was that we were going from an era dominated by geopolitics to a new era of geo-economics, one in which the state would cede place to the market, and in which rivalries would principally be over economic gains (technological innovations, market share, trade, investments, profits) and not over politics or ideologies.
America's Blind Infatuation with Israel
There is hardly any political debate in the United States about Israel, in fact far less so than in Israel itself. President Obama’s decision not to veto the recent UN resolution condemning Jewish settlement in the Palestinian Occupied Territories was unprecedented and courageous. But would he have taken the same stand had he been running for re-election? For an American politician to criticize Israel is tantamount to treason.
The most important bilateral relationship in the world? China-Japan, Opinion News & Top Stories - The Straits Times
Tomorrow, Wednesday, Dec 7, marks the 75th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. April 28 next year will mark the 65th anniversary of the United States-Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security, signed in September 1951. It took just a decade for Japan to move from being America's most hated enemy for launching the 1941 attack that President Franklin D.
The rise of China and the fall of democracy, Opinion News & Top Stories - The Straits Times
The spectacle of the 2016 American presidential election could hardly have been more deplorable. Yet, while billions of the world's eyes are focused on the tawdry American saga, from a political perspective - or indeed from virtually any perspective - the rest of the planet is not looking particularly uplifting. Two of the most prominent transformative contemporary developments have been the rapid rise of China as a major global economic and geopolitical power, and the global crisis of democracy.
Learn from history to scatter Asia's gathering clouds of war, Opinion News & Top Stories - The Straits Times
I spent the weekend of Sept 23-25 at the 2016 Chamonix Get-Together. This forum brings together once a year some 200 persons from diverse origins, diverse occupations and diverse generations. While the big global challenges - such as climate change, populism and the future of Russia - are addressed, emphasis is also given to more personal social issues.
New Silk Road - a ray of sunlight on a gloomy horizon? , Opinion News & Top Stories - The Straits Times
The 21st century began with seemingly bewildering opportunities as a new global business horizon unfolded.
Luxembourg - In Photos: The World's Richest Countries
GDP (PPP) per capita: $116,612.9 (estimated from 2014) All data from the World Bank.
The Hangzhou G20 Is Theater - But How Will It Play Out?
As with any play the audience will wait to see whether this turns out to be a comedy (with a happy ending), a tragedy (with a tragic ending), or simply farce devoid of any particular substance which will soon be forgotten.
A letter from Normandy to Abe: Lessons for Japan from WWII, Opinion News & Top Stories - The Straits Times
I spent a few days with my grandchildren visiting the beaches in Normandy in France that witnessed the landings of D-Day and the cities and towns that were ravaged by the fighting; these represent the first crucial steps to eventually bringing an end to World War II in Europe. We also visited the monuments and especially the cemeteries that bring forth a stark reminder of the deaths of the thousands of young men who perished so that subsequent generations might live.
With TPP dead, what next for world trade?
This article initially appeared in the South China Morning Post and is reproduced here with the Editor's permission. At a major conference on global trade in London this month, officials from the US were extolling the virtues and benefits of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and, in cahoots with officials from the [...]
The Perils of a Lawless World
I have reproduced below, with the editor's permission, an article I published in China Daily related to the South China Sea issue, entitled: Its peaceful rise not just dependent on China. The article does not go into the issue so much per se, but on the principle of law and precedent.
A rising, fragile global power
What is China by the Fung Brothers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mv98w5tbWEw Among the many daunting questions the planet is facing, the most important for at least the first quarter of the 21st century, in all likelihood extending to the first half, is the Chinese question. Will China's peaceful rise succeed, or will it fail?
Between Conflict And Peaceful Social Rise
I have been kicking around the Asia Pacific Region (APR), physically, professionally, intellectually and emotionally, for the better part of half-a-century. I count close friends in all the countries of the region (with the exception of North Korea!). By virtue of being visiting professor at Hong Kong University Faculty of [...]
Better A Brexit For A Revitalized EU
Let me begin by saying I am a great Britophile. I lived in the UK for some fifteen happy years; I met my wife (even though French like myself) at Oxford where I did my doctorate; my three children were born in the UK; I love British humor; I have [...]
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