Singapore’s former leader, Lee Kwan Yew, an astute observer of both the US and China, argues that China will not surpass the US as the leading power of the twenty-first century, precisely because the US attracts the best and brightest from the rest of the world and melds them into a diverse culture of creativity. China has a larger population to recruit from domestically, but, in Lee’s view, its Sino-centric culture will make it less creative than the US.
新加坡国父李光耀深谙中美两国，他认为中国不可能超越美国成为21世纪最强国，其原因正是美国吸引着全世界最优秀、最聪明的人，并将他们融入多元的创造力文化中。中国人口更多，更适于内部挖潜，但是，在李光耀看来，中国中心论将导致其创造力不如美国。