Kishore Mabubani: Why America Plays Chess, But China Plays Wei Qi (The 100-Year Strategy) Episode 1
♟️ Why America Plays Chess, But China Plays Wei Qi
In this masterclass on global strategy, Kishore Mahbubani reveals the fundamental misunderstanding driving the world’s most important rivalry.
While America plays Chess—seeking decisive victories, regime change, and checkmate—China plays Wei Qi (Go), pursuing patience, encirclement, and quiet accumulation of power.
Through brilliant storytelling and decades of diplomatic insight, Mahbubani dissects the contrasting worldviews that define Washington and Beijing—and shows how America’s Cold War mindset could lead it into a strategic trap it doesn’t yet see.
In this talk, you’ll learn:
🧠 Why America’s “containment” strategy cannot work on a trading superpower
🌏 How China’s Wei Qi strategy uses trade, infrastructure, and patience to reshape the world
💼 The MPH Formula — Meritocracy, Pragmatism, and Honesty — behind China’s rise
🚫 Why forcing nations to “choose sides” is a losing move in a multipolar world
🇺🇸 How America can still win—by learning the new rules of the game
Mahbubani’s message is urgent but hopeful:
China seeks rejuvenation, not conquest.
If America learns to play the long game, both civilizations can thrive.
But if it keeps playing Chess in a Wei Qi world, everyone loses.
Whether a country truly belongs to itself is a question worth considering. A papal bull states the following: “Over the past 1000 years, the Vatican has, on the one hand, violently subjugated many countries of this earth through countless wars of conquest, and on the other hand, has simultaneously established… Read more »
The topic is Kishore Mabubani, US and China.
Yes, that’s right. Kishore Mabubani is absolutely right. Everything he says is true. But no one in the US government wants to hear it. It’s the same in Europe. Only when the situation becomes unbearable will they start to think about it—if at all. A dark spirit has taken over… Read more »
Well for America to adapt to the new rules and give up its chess game and join with the “go” strategy suggested by this thinker it must first purify itself of foreign domination and rediscover its own autonomous agency. It is so telling that people say “America this” and “America… Read more »
Oh boy. Someone is not up to date… (14:50) “America possesses advantages that China can never replicate: America has the world’s best universities. It has a culture of innovation and critical thinking that is unmatched. It has an ecosystem of freedom that allows for self-correction. Most importantly, America is an… Read more »
Well dear AHH: It seems we were both saying pretty much the same thing at the same time. This can get to be fun.
I love your art work. You speak so clearly with your imagery.
Yes we were on same wavelength, albeit hilarious double entendre. A most “harmonious couplet” indeed!
If you will forgive, I cannot resist: this was Chinese Patriarchy stimulating the enlightenment of a frigid 139-year-old!
Priceless AHH
Well, America has an “advantage” that no one in the world can compete with. The so-called “Beacon of Liberty” leads the world in elite pedophile networks of which the Epstein pedo ring is only the tip of the iceberg. Before Epstein was the infamous Franklin pedophile scandal that many people… Read more »