SQUEAKY-CLEAN Singapore has become a model for 'constructing spiritual civilisation', a hot topic at the ongoing National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
Despite the differences in size and outlook of the two countries, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has made no secret of its admiration for how the Singapore leadership has apparently attained both economic progress and moral rectitude.
For reasons including national pride and diplomatic nicety, however, the official media has yet to give a full picture of why the world's longest continuous civilisation and would-be superpower has fallen for the relatively new Southeast Asian island republic.
In a dispatch on Sunday, the semi-official China News Service (CNS) pointed out that Politburo member Li Ruihuan had sought Singapore's advice during an Asian visit late last year.
CNS disclosed that in the city state, Mr Li, who was in charge of ideology and propaganda in the early 1990s, gave 'important views on the simultaneous development of economic construction and social progress'.
At about the same time, Mr Li's successor as chief ideologue, Politburo member Ding Guangen, toured the Lion City's cultural and media facilities.
