Southeast Asia won’t be ‘split between two camps’ over US-China rivalry, Singapore’s Lee Hsien Loong says

The regional geopolitical outlook is ‘not all gloomy’ given the efforts by states to maintain good ties, says PM Lee at the Asia Future Summit in Singapore
With globalisation ‘in retreat’, countries must maximise cooperation opportunities for the region to reach its full potential despite geopolitical challenges, Lee adds

Singapore

Kimberly Lim

Published: 8:45pm, 5 Oct 2023

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Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Thursday said he was optimistic that Southeast Asian nations would not be “split between two camps” despite the intense rivalry between the United States and China, adding that the regional geopolitical outlook was “not all gloomy” given efforts by states to maintain good ties with both superpowers.

“While different countries will align more closely with one side or the other, nearly all still want to be friends with both,” Lee said in a dialogue session at the geopolitics-focused Asia Future Summit in Singapore.

Lee said Asian countries could take a cue from other states, citing recent efforts by Japan and South Korea to thaw bilateral relations, as well as moves by China and Australia to ease trade tensions that stretch back to 2020.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Seoul in May. The leaders have taken steps in recent months to thaw bilateral ties. Photo: Pool via AP

While US ally Australia “may not see eye-to-eye on strategic issues” with China, Lee said the two countries shared a deep economic relationship, noting that Beijing had since lifted tariffs on Australian barley exports and barriers to Australian hay exports.

“So even countries that are not like-minded allies need to learn to cooperate and coexist with one another,” Lee said.

The Singapore leader was speaking at the final panel of the two-day foreign policy forum organised by Singapore newspapers The Straits Times, Lianhe Zaobao and The Business Times.

Besides great power competition, Lee said the region was also dealing with “our fair share of difficult issues” such as the territorial disputes in the South China Sea, and in the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea claimed by China but administered by Japan, which calls it the Senkakus.

“Asian countries need to insulate their overall relations from these specific difficulties, build mutual trust, and to continue to cooperate pragmatically for mutual benefit,” Lee said.

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Lee also reiterated a key theme of his remarks on geopolitics in recent years – that rising nationalism and trade protectionism posed serious challenges to the region.

“Globalisation is in retreat,” Lee said. “Trade and investment flows are increasingly being organised not just by economic logic, but by geopolitical orientation and national security imperatives.”

More are intervening in their economies and flouting international trade rules “in the name of resilience and self-reliance”, which compel others to do the same, Lee said.

“[This] distorts markets, leads to escalating rounds of state support and protection, and leaves everyone worse off. It’s a global trend, and affects our region too,” he said, urging governments to resist this trend.

In order for the region to reach its full potential in spite of these challenges, Lee said that states should “demonstrate a high standard of statesmanship and strong resolve to focus on shared interests” given the many opportunities for “win-win cooperation”.

Without cooperation with other countries, global issues such as climate change, pandemic preparedness and stability cannot be overcome, he said.

Ma Ying-jeou, former president of Taiwan. Photo: CNA

During the question and answer segment of the session, former president Ma Ying-jeou of self-ruled Taiwan called on the forum’s audience – made up of Singapore’s key strategic thinkers and senior representatives from both the public and private sectors – to push for a meeting between Beijing and Taipei authorities.

In response, Lee said Singapore was “very happy” to have hosted such dialogues in the past. Singapore in 1993 hosted a meeting of semi-government bodies from both sides – Beijing’s Wang Daohan and Taipei’s Koo Chen-fu, in what is now dubbed the Wang-Koo summit and viewed as an important moment in cross-strait ties.

In 2015, Singapore hosted President Xi Jinping and then Taiwan President Ma, a historic first meeting between the leaders of China and Taiwan since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949.

Since the end of the war, Beijing has viewed Taiwan as a renegade province that should be brought under mainland control, by force if necessary. While many nations, including the US, do not officially acknowledge Taiwan as an independent state, they oppose any use of force to alter the status quo.

President of Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits Wang Daohan (left) greets Taiwanese counterpart Koo Chen-fu in Singapore in 1993. File photo: Xinhua

On the possibility of hosting another meeting, Singapore’s Lee said: “If the circumstances dictate … further meetings in future, we would be very happy to be the party sitting there, providing the room and pouring the tea.”

Taking another question about his views on where US-China relations were headed, Lee said while the relationship was rife with mutual mistrust, the “saving grace” was that both did not want conflict, even though “neither side is yet ready to make significant accommodation and compromise”.

He suggested that coming high-level meetings between US and China officials could yield positive results, but ultimately still needed to “be managed by both sides” and could be “disastrous for both sides and also for the world” if not handled properly.

‘Extreme’ US-China rivalry could be economically ‘disastrous’: Singapore’s Wong

Lee’s comments come amid talk that the ongoing flurry of diplomacy between Beijing and Washington could culminate in a leaders’ summit on the sidelines of the Apec summit in California later this year.

On China’s increasing influence in the region, Lee said China had to give countries the “space to grow, to develop to compete with one another peacefully and not be held down or squatted upon”, as the US had done in the last 80 years, in order for the region to prosper.

“The Americans have been a major force in Asia since, at least, the second world war. It’s now … coming on 80 years and they remain welcome,” he said.