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Sino File | Ignore the show for Lee Hsien Loong, Singapore and China are still at odds
The Lion City prime minister’s welcome in Beijing is not a sign the countries have put differences over the South China Sea behind them – the conditions that underpinned their once warm relationship have changed forever
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Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s visit to China this week was widely seen as a sign that relations, strained in large part by differences over the South China Sea, are back on track.
However, despite the show of goodwill during Lee’s visit, the geopolitical conditions that underpinned the once warm and long-standing friendship between Beijing and the city state – something rarely seen in the region – have changed forever.
Fraternal relations were built from two fundamental moments: when Singapore’s late founding father, Lee Kuan Yew – also the current leader’s father – paid his first visit to China in 1976, and when Chinese patriarch Deng Xiaoping paid a reciprocal visit to Singapore in 1978.
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When China opened its doors to the world, Singapore took an active interest and involvement in the process. As China’s second largest foreign investor, Singapore played a critical role in China’s development; it set up the demonstrative China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park in 1994, the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city in 2007 and the Chongqing Connectivity Initiative in 2015.
Singapore will not roll over for China
As a regional leader, Singapore was instrumental in forming China’s relations with the West, particularly with the United States and Asean nations.
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