Singapore–China Relations

The following sections are included:

• Contents
• About the Editors and Contributors (Listing Based on Order of Chapters)
• Acknowledgement

When World Scientific Publishing approached us to write a book to commemorate the anniversary of relations between Singapore and China, we were initially daunted. It is no easy task as the book would have to be of considerable length to give a proper account of the breadth and depth of bilateral relations. We were also working within a tight time frame as the anniversary was in October…

Well before formal ties were established, Singapore and China already had extensive interactions as part of China's relations with Southeast Asia. During the height of Beijing's difficult relations with Southeast Asia in the 1950s and 1960s, Singapore maintained its economic ties with China. Today, the two countries enjoy a broadbased, substantive and rapidly expanding relationship. Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping's mention of Singapore in 1992 as a reference for China's reform laid the basis for further cooperation. Apart from the rapport among the leaders, institutional mechanisms like the Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation have become more important in driving bilateral ties.

Singapore's first Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew met five generations of Chinese leaders including Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping. Xi said Lee was an old friend of the Chinese people and the founder and mover of China–Singapore relationship. Indeed, Lee had laid the foundation for strong bilateral ties. Chinese leaders are always keen to learn from the Singapore model, especially Lee's brand of ‘soft authoritarianism’. Lee's unique background as a Cambridgeeducated Chinese and his farsightedness made him an impressive interlocutor to foreign leaders. Despite the passing away of Lee, Singapore is likely to continue to be an active actor in China's ‘going global’ initiatives.

Bilateral economic ties between China and Singapore predate the establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations in 1990. Since the late 1970s, bilateral economic exchange had advanced and cooperation expanded at both the government and business levels. Bilateral economic relations have further deepened since Singapore and China formally set up diplomatic ties in 1990. Bilateral trade has grown in volume and scope. Capital flows between the two countries, in the forms of direct investment and equity investment, have also surged. Both sides have enhanced their financial cooperation in recent years. The future witnesses great potential in further strengthening of their economic ties, although challenges exist.

China–Singapore tourism exchange formally began when the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1990. Since 2003, China has become Singapore's second-largest tourism source market, behind Indonesia. Singapore, despite its tiny population, accounted for an important share in China's inbound tourism compared to other Southeast Asian countries. In addition to the growing inbound tourists from mainland China that would sustain the development of Singapore's tourism industry, China's inbound and domestic tourism also offers opportunities for Singapore companies to invest in China's tourism industry. Both countries will continue to benefit from mutual cooperation in terms of China's enormous market and Singapore's more mature management skills and marketing strategies in tourism promotion.

The Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) has laid a good foundation for Singapore to broaden and deepen its relations with China, including enabling government and business leaders, ministers and officials from both sides to establish stronger political and economic ties. A high-level bilateral cooperation framework was thus created and subsequently expanded to oversee cooperation between the two countries. Apart from its political significance, the SIP has reaffirmed the Singapore brand name in China. Building on the success of the SIP, both countries have embarked on the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city, the second flagship project, and a third flagship project is in the pipeline. With cooperation being pursued on several fronts including several private sector-led projects, it is important to ensure SIP's continued success so as to add substance to the bilateral relationship.

Singapore–China cooperation projects from the Suzhou Industrial Park to the Tianjin Eco-city have manifested China's shift from an export-oriented manufacturing base to a service-driven and low-carbon economy. Compared with the unilateral knowledge transfer from Singapore to China in the Suzhou Industrial Park project, the Singapore side has found its participation in the Tianjin Eco-city project to be an expertise-sharing and mutual-learning exercise as pollution and energy problems have pushed a rising China to lead the world in tapping renewable energy. It also marks Singapore's continued strive to stay relevant to China's rise by identifying a niche area for collaboration with China.

Singbridge is actively involved in developing the Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City and Sino-Singapore Jilin Food Zone among its other projects in China. Unlike the Suzhou Industrial Park and the Tianjin Eco-city which are government-to-government projects, the Guangzhou Knowledge City and Jilin Food Zone are driven by the private sector with strong government support. They represent a different but equally important model of cooperation between Singapore and China that further demonstrates Singapore's continuing efforts to stay relevant to China's growth and to derive mutual benefits by collaborating in areas of mutual interest.

Educational links are an important part of the bilateral relations between Singapore and China. Starting from a low base, educational exchanges and collaborations have moved beyond language training and broadened in scope. China is a major source country of international students in Singapore. Meanwhile, the number of Singaporeans studying in Chinese universities has grown rapidly in recent years. Singapore is also well known for its leadership training programmes tailored to Chinese officials. Whether the two countries can maintain the momentum of collaboration depends on how both sides can stay relevant to each other in a changing context where there is free open choice of regional and global players for partnership.

This is a narrative, constructed chronologically and historically, on “soft” contributions by the Chinese community in Singapore from 1965 to 2015. “Soft” contributions encompass the intangibles such as culture, arts, education and identity formation. The Chinese community made extraordinary achievements in “hard” tangible contributions, particularly in the areas of economic development, investments, political events, diplomatic achievements, etc., which have been researched extensively. Together, the “soft” and “hard” aspects of Chinese contributions compose an eclectic picture of a dynamically-evolving huashe or Chinese community and their contributions to Singapore. Education, economy, arts and culture, afterlife traditions and food culture are the five themes covered in this historical survey of the Chinese community in Singapore.

In official and popular media in China, Singapore has a presence much larger than its territorial size. The official media is most interested in what lessons China could draw from Singapore in a variety of policy-related domains, such as providing public housing, managing social stability, maintaining clean government and effective governance, and party-building of the ruling People's Action Party. Official reports and analyses have become more focused in content and rational in tune. The locus of popular media has shifted to travel writings, pop music and more recently, encounters of tourists and sojourners. Singapore's image in popular media has become more diverse and more realistic than in the past.

The idea of ‘Chinese studies in Singapore’ can be conceptualised as an academic subject as well as contemporary China studies for think tanks in Singapore. Chinese studies in Singapore is shaped by factors such as domestic politics in Singapore and its impact on contemporary China research. For an institutional analysis of contemporary China studies in Singapore, the writing touches on the evolution of the Institute of East Asian Philosophies to the Institute of East Asian Political Economy and finally to the East Asian Institute.

The following sections is included:

• Index