Singapore's deputy PM expresses hope for stable U.S.-China competition

SINGAPORE, May 21 (Xinhua) -- By exploring areas of common interest, the United States and China can eventually arrive at a framework for stable competition, Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies Heng Swee Keat said Thursday.

Such competition may be inevitable, but it needs not be zero-sum, Heng said while virtually addressing the 26th International Conference on the Future of Asia.

"Healthy competition can spur innovation to create better solutions to the world's challenges. And by finding common ground to working together even as we compete, we can build on one another's strengths, and achieve more than the sum of our parts," he said.

What is important is that competition be conducted within a stable framework so as to defuse tensions and avoid a situation where differing interests prevent them from cooperating even on common interests, or worse still, escalate into armed conflicts, he said.

China and the United States have a long history of working together in areas of common interest, such as that of combating global health crises, he said.

Noting that the world is now at another crossroads in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, Heng said vaccines are in short supply globally, and "vaccine nationalism is a fact that we cannot wish away."

"If we do not step up global cooperation to contain the virus, we may be caught in a vicious cycle of never-ending waves of infection," he said.

"I look forward to closer cooperation and greater global leadership from the U.S. and China on combatting COVID-19 and working towards the post-pandemic recovery," he said.