From Forbes, via Taiwan Security Research:
China has been courting its neighbors, and although the Chinese did not coin the phrase ‘soft power’, they have exercised it with consummate skill. Only the United States and Japan have expressed concern and asked China what its intentions are regarding its increased military spending and its firing of a missile into space to shoot down one of its own satellites.
China’s other neighbors appear unconcerned, a measure of its soft-power success. Most of these countries are focused on China’s growth, anticipating the economic benefits in trade and investment it will bring them. For example, China’s voracious appetite for energy and other natural resources is feeding an economic boom in Australia and, like other countries in the Asia-Pacific region, Australia wants China’s growth to continue without disruption by conflicts over Taiwan. [Full Text]
Lee Kuan Yew is Minister Mentor of Singapore. He was Prime Minister of Singapore from 1959 to 1990.
