As a result, Singapore has remained ever vigilant. Generally, the smaller the country, the more concerned it is about its larger neighbors. Friend or FoeĮven so, small countries like Singapore rarely feel safe. In fact, after Thailand’s military coup in 2014 and the Philippines’ election of Rodrigo Duterte as its president in 2016, Singapore could be considered America’s closest ally in the region. At the same time, Singapore drew closer to other major powers, like India, Japan, and the United States. However, as China’s economic rise accelerated and its military heft grew, the two countries began to drift apart. Singapore has prided itself on its “ quiet, friendly but firm style of diplomacy” with China. With such close personal relationships with China’s top leaders, it is no wonder that Singaporean leaders felt as if they could always work out problems with Beijing, often discretely. Even today, many Chinese still recognize Lee’s contribution to shaping China’s economic success. After Deng’s retirement, Lee became close with Jiang Zemin, too. In 1992, Deng went so far as to describe Singapore as the model China should follow for development. The two leaders, who happened to share a common Hakka Chinese heritage, became good friends. Reciprocating, Lee would eventually visit China 33 times. That appealed to China, whose communist party in the late 1970s had started a long economic reform process to turn its brand of communism into what would become known as “socialism with Chinese characteristics.” Chinese Vice Premier (and soon-to-be paramount leader) Deng Xiaoping even travelled to meet Lee in 1978.
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To outside observers, Lee’s Singapore became the exemplar of how to create economic prosperity under one-party rule. As the title of former Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kwan Yew’s memoir recounted, Singapore soared “from third world to first.” Throughout that period, Lee’s political party remained (and still remains) at the helm.
With the exception of three years, Singapore’s economy would grow at an annual rate of over six percent for three decades (and over ten percent for half that time). Oh So SpecialĪs to why China and Singapore developed a special relationship can be traced back to the latter’s spectacular economic growth after its independence in 1965. It also marked a low point in Singapore’s relationship with China, which has long been a special one despite the dramatic size imbalance between the two countries. A day after the seizure, China’s foreign ministry announced that “the Chinese government has always firmly opposed countries that have diplomatic ties with the Chinese mainland to conduct official exchanges of any kind with Taiwan, including military exchanges and cooperation.” It was the first time China had ever publicly rebuked the Southeast Asian city-state. In November 2016, China seized nine armored vehicles that Singapore had shipped through Hong Kong on their return from a training exercise on Taiwan.
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