Prepared by: Ina Stašević, Croatia/EU
For years, a certain attitude has persisted in parts of the Western public sphere, viewing the development of Asian nations with a degree of mistrust, underestimation, and sometimes even open disparagement. When Asian states achieve economic growth, technological progress, or increased political influence, their successes are frequently attributed to the copying of Western ideas or—simply put—to "fortunate circumstances." Conversely, Western development is often portrayed as the result of accumulated knowledge, innovation, long-term effort, and institutional work. Such a stance is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain.
Today, Asia is not merely a "factory of cheap labor," as it is often depicted in simplistic terms. It is a region where some of the most significant technological, industrial, financial, and infrastructural transformations of our time are taking place. China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, India, Vietnam, and numerous other countries have developed their own models of economy, education, technology, and governance. Some have emerged as global leaders in sectors such as electronics, shipbuilding, battery technology, telecommunications, artificial intelligence, manufacturing, and digital services.
However, a certain intellectual hierarchy persists in parts of the Western media and public, wherein the West is viewed as the benchmark of progress, while Asian success is regarded as something requiring explanation, justification, or downplaying.
One of the most widespread stereotypes is the belief that Asian countries owe their success solely to cheap labor. While this argument may have held some weight a few decades ago, it is no longer sufficient to explain the scale of Asia's development today.
Cheap labor alone is not enough to create technology giants or to produce cutting-edge chips, sophisticated automobiles, advanced ships, satellites, software, or global financial systems. These require education, infrastructure, capital, organization, research, entrepreneurship, and a long-term strategy.
Even more problematic is the claim that Asia is merely imitating the West. The history of development shows us that almost all major industrial powers, at certain stages, learned from others, adopted technologies, adapted them, and subsequently developed their own solutions. Industrialization has never been a process where one civilization invented everything while others simply copied it.
When an Asian company improves upon existing technology, it is sometimes misconstrued as copying. When a Western company employs a similar process, it is often described as an innovation, a competitive move, or a market development. This very difference in terminology may point to a certain bias. Part of this tendency to underestimate may also stem from the shifting global balance of power.
For centuries, European and later North American powers wielded immense political, military, economic, and cultural influence. This fostered the belief that the existing order was natural and permanent. Yet, history demonstrates that no center of power lasts forever.
Asia’s current rise marks a shift of significant global economic and political power back to a region that, for much of human history, was a key center of civilization. The very idea that countries like China could play a pivotal role in shaping the future global order remains difficult for some to accept.
Instead of seriously examining this phenomenon, people sometimes resort to stereotypes, portraying Asian nations as authoritarian, uncreative, unoriginal, or socially "backward." Of course, criticism regarding their political systems, human rights records, or social issues is entirely legitimate. The problem arises when such justified criticism morphs into a sweeping assumption that their civilizations or societies are of lesser value. Asia is not a single country Therefore, one of the biggest mistakes is to view Asia as a unified and homogeneous whole. China is not Japan, Japan is not India, India is not South Korea, and South Korea is not Singapore. These are societies with distinct histories, cultures, political systems, and economic models. Precisely for this reason, Asia's development cannot be explained by a single formula. Some countries based their transformation on industrialization and exports, others on education and technology, and some on trade and finance, while others combine multiple approaches. What they all share is the fact that they have demonstrated that modernization is not exclusively a Western project—and that is perhaps the most important message.
It is time to abandon civilizational arrogance Respecting Asia’s development does not mean idealizing the region; rather, it means accepting the fact that no single civilization holds a monopoly on progress. The 21st-century world will be increasingly multipolar. Asian nations will play an ever-greater role in it—not because someone is "giving them a chance," but because they possess human capital, vast markets, industrial capacity, technological know-how, and their own developmental ambitions. Therefore, it would be more constructive to stop viewing Asia’s rise through the lens of derision, skepticism, and stereotypes.
The history of development is not the story of a single civilization advancing while the rest of the world merely follows; it is a continuous process of learning, exchange, adaptation, and competition among societies. And today, Asia is one of the key drivers of that story.