Tan Kong Yam: China may be more down-to-earth after crisis shocks and may stop thinking too highly of itself

Tan Kong Yam, Professor of economics at NTU Singapore, used the analogy of a snail to answer a question on China's pandemic prevention policy at the ‘Decoding China’s Two Sessions’ forum on Friday (8 Apr). 

Like the snail, when it meets danger, the snail will withdraw to its shell, but when the risk has passed, China will slowly return to action. According to Tan Kong Yam, China's rapid development over the past 40 years of reform and opening up has made the big country "a bit smug". Prof Tan opined that as China has been shaken by the Ukraine crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic, “it may be more down-to-earth after introspection and stop overestimating its capabilities. This is not necessarily a bad thing for the country as a whole and for its leaders."

Read the article (in Chinese and for subscribers) here.

Photo: João Costa on Unsplash