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Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Photo: dpa

Singapore PM says stable US-China ties crucial for Asia; hopes Hong Kong settles into ‘new normal’ with security law

  • Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told an Atlantic Council forum that stable US-China relations were crucial for Asia to ‘make a living and lead our lives’
  • He also touched on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, fears over Huawei, and the controversial National Security Law in Hong Kong
Singapore

Key points:

• Lee said he hoped the next US administration would seek bipartisan consensus on Asia policy

• He urged the US to ‘find a way to come back’ to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which Trump abandoned

• Regarding US-China tech stand-off, Lee described fallout from possible supply chain bifurcation as ‘painful’

• He said Singapore did not exclude Huawei when it sought proposals to build 5G networks

• Asked about Hong Kong unrest, he said everyone would benefit if city is ‘stable and calm and prosperous’

• Having suggested previously he could retire by 2022, Lee said ‘Covid-19 has taken us all by surprise’

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Tuesday said he hoped US-China ties improve following November’s US presidential election, although he noted the “degree of animus” and bipartisan consensus on the threat posed by Beijing was unprecedented.

During an online session moderated by billionaire private equity magnate David Rubenstein and organised by the Atlantic Council, a US think tank, Lee said Asian countries must hope the next US administration can formulate a “stable, predictable” policy towards the region.

Like his late father Lee Kuan Yew, who was Singapore’s independence leader, the current prime minister is regarded in Washington’s strategic circles as an important sounding board for Asia policy.

“Please try and develop a bipartisan consensus so that there is stability and predictability in US-Asian relations,” Lee said when asked what advice he would give the next president.

“Not just do the right thing for your administration [but] make a consensus so that the policy will last beyond your administration, and people can plan on it, and can depend on it.”

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong with US President Donald Trump in 2018. Photo: Ministry of Communications and Information of Singapore via AFP

He highlighted former president Barack Obama’s strategic rebalance of US interests towards Asia away from the Atlantic.

“Many Asian countries supported that, and we asked Obama: ‘What will happen after your administration?’ They said: ‘Well, this is universal’,” Lee recalled.

Since his election in 2016, US President Donald Trump has taken a different tack, suggesting South Korea and Japan cover more of the costs of US troops and other military assets deployed in the region.

“[The Trump administration] also talked about putting more emphasis on Asia, which is welcome,” Lee said. “But it’s quite different from what Obama used to do. And we don’t know what Trump’s successor is going to do, or what the successor’s successor is going to do.”

Singapore PM says China can’t replace US security role in Southeast Asia

Regarding the potential for less volatile US-China ties, Lee acknowledged it was a “big ask” but said the region depended on “stable US-China relations in order for us to have a secure and predictable environment in which we can make a living and lead our lives”.

He also expressed his hope for the US to “find a way to come back” to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the sprawling Asia-Pacific trade pact devised by Obama.

Trump abandoned the TPP within days of taking office after campaigning on the platform of “America First” and claiming the deal would hurt US workers.

The 11 other countries that had endorsed the TPP have since signed a deal called the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Lee said: “If the US can find the way politically to come back to it, and join it, then you’re not only advancing US interests in the region, you’re also setting a dynamic in the region towards cooperation and the right rules, which will help the region to integrate, which will build trust, which will raise standards for trade, and for economic exchange between the countries.

“And who knows, one day the Chinese may decide they have to come and join the game and participate by the same rules and I think that you will have had a win-win.”
While being interviewed by Rubenstein, Lee broached a range of topics, including the tech battle between the US and China, describing the fallout from a supply chain bifurcation as “painful”.

“It may still happen but we hope that there will be trust between the two sides and it will be possible for cooperation to continue, and for you to continue to use iPhones with components made in China, and for the Chinese to use Huawei phones with component components made in the US,” he said.

Can China actually join a trans-Pacific trade deal abandoned by Trump?

Asked whether Singapore shared US security concerns about Huawei – regarded in Washington as having unacceptably strong links with the Chinese military – Lee reiterated that “no system is totally 100 per cent secure”.

He said the Singaporean government did not exclude the Chinese firm when it sought proposals to build its 5G networks.

“In the main bids, the bidders did not choose Huawei but in some of the other aspects of the 5G networks, Huawei will be figuring and in future bids I have no doubt that he will be participating again,” he said.

02:09

Trump signs Hong Kong Autonomy Act, ends city’s preferential trade status over national security law

Trump signs Hong Kong Autonomy Act, ends city’s preferential trade status over national security law
Lee was also asked about the current political situation in Hong Kong, which has been roiled by deep divisions over the national security law that came into effect on July 1.

“The reaction has been split, some people supported the administration – a significant part of the population have different views. But it’s done,” he said.

The prime minister said that if, as promised by Beijing, the law “only affects a small number of people”, it was possible Hong Kong would “settle into a new normal”.

“From Singapore’s point of view, we hope that somehow or other Hong Kong will work through its problems and we think it’s better for Hong Kong and better for the region and Singapore if Hong Kong is stable and calm and prosperous and able to play the role which it used to play – helping China to grow and prosper as well,” he said.

How will Singapore’s opposition leader shape alternative policies?

Lee was sworn in for the fifth time as prime minister after Singapore’s July 10 election but told Rubenstein he had not decided how long he would stay as the country’s leader. He replaced Goh Chok Tong – his father’s successor – in 2004 and has in recent years said he wanted to retire by 2022.

“I haven’t decided,” Lee said. “I had hoped to be able to hand over by the time I was 70 years old, which is February 2022. But Covid-19 has taken us all by surprise and I think I have to see this through and hand over Singapore in good shape into good hands.”

When asked lightheartedly whether he hoped to match his father’s 31 years as prime minister, Lee replied: “No, that is not my ambition.”

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