https://www.scmp.com/rss/321521/feed George Yeo is a former foreign minister of Singapore. From September 1988 to May 2011, he served 23 years in the Singapore government, and was minister for information and the arts, minister for health, minister for trade & industry and minister for foreign affairs. He is currently a visiting scholar at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy of the National University of Singapore, and the founding patron of its Asia Competitiveness Institute. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com For half a year, Singapore’s former foreign minister George Yeo met and mused over a wide range of topics with writer Woon Tai Ho and research assistant Keith Yap, in weekly interview sessions which lasted two to three hours each time. The result of the interviews is a series of three books. In the first book, George Yeo: Musings, the 67-year-old offers his views on India, China, Asean, Europe, the United States and other parts of the world, and how Singapore’s history and destiny are connected... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3190690/singapores-george-yeo-southeast-asias-chinese-diaspora-regional?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3190690/singapores-george-yeo-southeast-asias-chinese-diaspora-regional?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 31 Aug 2022 02:30:17 +0000 The following is part two of an article first published in ThinkChina.sg by George Yeo, a former Singapore minister for foreign affairs, who is now senior adviser for Kuok Group and Kerry Logistics. The first part was titled, “How Singapore’s ‘Chinese-ness’ helped shape China’s great revival”. In 10 years, China’s nominal GDP may overtake that of the US. Short of nuclear war between the US and China, there is little doubt that China’s importance to Singapore and Asean will continue to grow. But... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3107636/us-china-relations-are-ties-bind-singapore-and-asean?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3107636/us-china-relations-are-ties-bind-singapore-and-asean?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 30 Oct 2020 00:00:24 +0000 The following is part one of an article first published in ThinkChina.sg by George Yeo, a former Singapore minister for foreign affairs, who is now senior adviser for Kuok Group and Kerry Logistics. In 2018, China celebrated the 40th anniversary of Deng Xiaoping’s new policy of reform and opening up. In those 40 years, China’s economy grew roughly 50 times in US dollars, 200 times in renminbi terms and about 90 times in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP). Although the bulk of the effort was... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3107589/how-independent-singapores-chinese-ness-helped-shape-chinas?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3107589/how-independent-singapores-chinese-ness-helped-shape-chinas?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 29 Oct 2020 08:00:10 +0000 Regional trade and investment in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) cannot be discussed without reference to the larger world. From the earliest days, the people of Southeast Asia have been in continuous interaction with those of East Asia, South Asia and beyond. That larger world is again in flux. Facing the prospect of a competing superpower in China, the United States now defines its national interest in narrower terms. Many Americans no longer see the post-World War II... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3046190/south-china-sea-connected-us-it-never-divided-us-how-asean-can?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3046190/south-china-sea-connected-us-it-never-divided-us-how-asean-can?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 15 Jan 2020 08:00:17 +0000 Rudyard Kipling said in his famous ballad: “East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.” Whether we like it or not, the twain are meeting again, and creating and opening a new chapter in history. When we read about the trade war and Huawei, and we read about the anti-China – and increasingly anti-Chinese – sentiment in the United States, one recalls Kipling’s famous line. But for him the East was not China. For him East was South Asia, where he spent many years of his... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3021354/chinese-exceptionalism-law-vs-etiquette-and-chopsticks-people?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3021354/chinese-exceptionalism-law-vs-etiquette-and-chopsticks-people?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 04 Aug 2019 05:25:23 +0000 The current trade war between the United States and China is causing considerable stress to businesses in the line of fire. Even after the US midterm elections next month, the tension will not go away. Anti-China sentiment is growing in the US. Peter Navarro, one of US President Donald Trump’s top trade advisers, described “death by China”. Manufacturers in China, both Chinese and non-Chinese, are reacting. Distribution centres for consumer products are shifting back to Hong Kong from China.... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2168703/chinas-trade-war-pain-can-be-aseans-gain-how-southeast-asia?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2168703/chinas-trade-war-pain-can-be-aseans-gain-how-southeast-asia?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 15 Oct 2018 23:45:45 +0000 The unity of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) was shaken after the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea delivered its judgment on the South China Sea maritime claims in July 2016. When the Philippines took China to the tribunal for compulsory arbitration in January 2013, it did not consult the association beforehand; it knew Asean would not have supported the action. When the award was made, Asean countries had no common stance and were badly split. All came under... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2141235/asean-and-art-living-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2141235/asean-and-art-living-china?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 11 Apr 2018 05:30:09 +0000 One of the best-known English-language newspapers in Asia, the South China Morning Post, has been acquired by China’s internet giant Alibaba. That Alibaba bought this venerable newspaper, founded in 1903, has raised eyebrows, especially in the West. Some think that Alibaba needs the goodwill of the Chinese government, and will therefore sacrifice objective reporting to curry favour with Beijing. I see the acquisition from another angle. It is not unusual for the Western media to see China... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1892359/seeing-china-what-it-warts-and-all-will-help-bridge-east?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1892359/seeing-china-what-it-warts-and-all-will-help-bridge-east?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 17 Dec 2015 09:29:26 +0000 This summer, for the first time, financial turmoil in China created turbulence around the world and even hit New York. This is a historic event and is a portent of things to come. Yes, China fumbled. It could have avoided certain obvious mistakes which many saw coming, but the Chinese will learn from it. What the episode shows is how the relative weights are shifting in the world way beyond just trade. China still accounts for less than 15 per cent of global gross domestic product, but its... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1878179/chinas-developing-connectivity-its-neighbours-story-epic?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1878179/chinas-developing-connectivity-its-neighbours-story-epic?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 12 Nov 2015 09:11:19 +0000