Kishore Mahbubani, Singapore’s distinguished former ambassador to the UN, is well known for writing books designed to needle western readers. He even subtitles this new book, “a provocation”. That is a pity, since his desire to provoke skews his analysis and diverts attention from the good advice he provides. His new book is “intended, ultimately, as a gift to the west”, but unfortunately, the packaging gets in his way.

The west — or some caricature of it — is an easy target for Mr Mahbubani, while China gets a free ride. For example, is it really the case that “western minds” do not understand that “now it is in their strategic interests to be prudent and non-interventionist”? Or that western elites “display little humility” when they write in the pages of the New York Times or the Financial Times?

Is it true that China, which rejected a 2016 Law of the Sea tribunal regarding its claims in the South China Sea, “is happy to live in a world dominated by multilateral rules and processes”? And is Chinese president Xi Jinping really an exemplar of “rational good governance”, despite the fact that he tore up his forerunner Deng Xiaoping’s reform that set term limits on Chinese leaders?