Advice for new president

Asked for his advice to the new US administration on China policy, Paal said the US needs to re-energize the concept of diplomacy. "We tried to solve every problem with the security or military action," he said. "You have to step back and ask: 'Isn't there a way we can handle this conflict more effectively?'"

Thomas Christenson, a professor at Princeton University and a former deputy assistant-secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs under the George W. Bush administration, criticized the US rebalance to Asia strategy in a recent talk at the Council on Foreign Relations. He said that it was hard for moderates in China to win debates at home because the policy, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), has been perceived as excluding and containing China.

Christenson believes it was unnecessary for the US to conduct freedom of navigation operations in such a high-profiled way, such as having a CNN crew onboard flying in the South China Sea.

"I said it all the time that we keep triggering the worst response from China, rather than trying to get more flexible response from China," Paal said.

Former British foreign secretary David Miliband, now head of the International Rescue Committee, argued in the CNN Global Public Square program on Sunday that China wants to reform and rebuild the international system, not undermine it or create a parallel system, an argument that is often not accepted by US politicians.

To Miliband, the current international system is not working properly to address a wide range of urgent issues.

Kishore Mahbubani, dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, agreed that China wants to rebuild and strengthen the international system, and not undermine it.

Obama has frequently played the geopolitical card and repeatedly said that "if we don't write rules, China will" in a bid to sell the controversial TPP agreement to Americans.

Mahbubani said that Clinton will be a far better president than Trump. "But it will be an absolute mistake for Hillary Clinton to come to office and say, 'Hey, I know exactly how the world works, and I know exactly what to do,' because the world has changed fundamentally," he said.

The former senior Singaporean diplomat said "The Post-American World" has come, referring to the book of CNN host Fareed Zakaria. "So it will be a difficult job for Hillary Clinton when she becomes president, because suddenly she has to unlearn many of the instincts she had in the past and develop new instincts.

"But if she relearns what the new world is about, makes an effort to reach out to Asia, Asia will receive her very warmly," Mahbubani said.

Contact the writer at chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com