Singapore, reluctant US-China go-between, should continue to be useful to both

Talks between Lee Hsien Loong and Joe Biden reflect Singapore’s role as interlocutor for the US in Asia, which can only be good news for a conflict-weary world
Dismissed by some for its size, Singapore boasts a strategic location, high GDP, and a demonstrated ability to work with China

Tom Plate

Published: 1:00am, 19 Apr 2022

Why you can trust SCMP

Ever since my first meeting with Lee Kuan Yew a quarter of a century ago, Singapore has remained in my mind as special. By the time of the founding prime minister’s passing at 91 in 2015, that assessment was going global; even in Hong Kong circles, where desultory governance and economic factors, especially housing, seemed to inspire spasms of exodus, Singapore seemed an honourable option.

It was not always thus. There was a time when Western media barely noticed the island city state, and when it did the storyline was predictably a rehash of the 1994 caning of a visiting American teenager, or of odd restrictions on chewing gum sales. No longer. Today’s Singapore storyline might be imagined as a combination of Hollywood films such as Crazy Rich Asians and Mr Smith Goes to Washington.

Perhaps even that encomium somewhat shorts Singapore. For government and political science nerds (like myself), the Southeast Asian polity offers almost textbook lessons of how to pull off professional modern governance. Employing the utilitarian standard that only better economic and social outcomes can justify government, Singapore has set exemplary standards.

People walk along Marina Bay East Park in Singapore on October 20, 2021. Photo: AFP

And those outcomes – high per capita income, state-of-engineering public infrastructure, an exemplary educational system – remain on display as the city state moves to select its fourth prime minister since its 1965 founding. At this point, Finance Minister Lawrence Wong has successfully emerged as the compromise leader of the dominant People’s Action Party, tabbing him as presumed successor to Lee Hsien Loong, now 70, eldest son of Lee Kuan Yew and Singapore’s prime minister since 2004.

Not everyone is stuck on Singapore, of course. Some people persist in viewing it as a one-off oddball of a city state. Then there is scoffing at its population size: 5.5 million. So what? Prominent countries with comparable population sizes include Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand and Norway. Size is important but it’s not everything.

Some of my American colleagues trash-talk it as little more than a claustrophobic one-party state. Really? Consider Japan, arguably a one-party state embraced by the octopus known as the Liberal Democratic Party: it’s nonetheless a key ally of US (struggling, by contrast, with its non-exemplary two-party system).

History may be nudging Singapore, with a per-capita income 1.5 times that of Japan, closer to Tokyo’s role as a Washington comfort pillow. At their joint media appearance at the White House last month, the two emphasised their bilateral connections. Midway through his carefully prepared statement, Lee noted: “Singapore is the second-largest Asian investor in the US, and the US is the largest investor in Singapore.”

He then pointedly underlined his government’s concurrence with the US’ condemnation of Russia’s military assault on Ukraine’s sovereignty: “We cannot condone any country arguing that another country’s independence is the result of historical errors and crazy decisions.” Niftily put; easily the best quip of the press appearance.

US President Joe Biden (right) and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore meet the press after a meeting to discuss issues such as trade and security, at the White House in Washington, US, on March 29. Photo: EPA-EFE

Singapore’s value to the US is enhanced by its littoral location in Southeast Asia near Indonesia and Australia, by its role in the Association of Southeast Asian States (Asean), and by its reputation, justified or not, as an East-West go-between with Beijing.

An American reporter even dangled the phrase “China Whisperer” to Lee in a press meeting, but Lee was having none of that, even after the reporter persisted with, “Well, could you be?” The prime minister was not for turning: “No we cannot, we are not part of the family. We are an ethnic Chinese majority country in Southeast Asia. Multiracial, multi-religious with independent, national interests and priorities and [the Chinese] treat us as such. And we remind them that that is so.”

Singapore’s shyness on this point will not convince everyone. It is well known that it cooperates with the Pentagon in Washington and the US Indo-Pacific Command in Pearl Harbour, Hawaii. It even houses what might be described as a military hostel for the US Navy on its turf.

At the same time, it does enjoy a certain kind of special connection with China. This goes back to the young Lee Kuan Yew’s famous effort half a century ago to be sherpa, cordially but carefully, to the economic reformer Deng Xiaoping’s foray into the brave new world (for China) of 20th century capitalism and non-state entrepreneurship.

Singapore may not want to be seen as working both sides of the China-US street but surely it’s an asset to have such a strategically located service on hand, whispered or not. As former Singapore foreign minister George Yeo once put it: “Singapore’s relationship is that of a relative. We are not family, but we get pulled into the family’s conversations from time to time. We cannot avoid being affected by the grand drama of the Chinese mainland. Singapore’s involvement in the affairs of China goes back to the last days of the Qing dynasty.”

What’s Singapore’s secret? Any number of factors, surely, but one, in particular, resurfaces in volume 2 of journalist Peh Shing Huei’s recent biography of the second prime minister, Goh Chok Tong (1990-2004). The book is lengthy, but superb in detail and quality of storytelling. Chapter Six is titled: “To Not Be Mediocre”. That might well qualify as the Singapore moniker.

This exceptional nation fields its best brainiacs as well as anyone. May it proceed apace, if not grow, as both “China Whisperer” and “Washington Comfort Pillow”. Peace needs all the help it can get, however it can get it.

LMU’s distinguished scholar of Asian and Pacific Studies is author of “Conversations with Lee Kuan Yew: How to Build a Nation” (Giants of Asia series). He is also vice-president of the Pacific Century Institute in Los Angeles