http://www.chinapost.com.tw/asia/singapore/2009/11/14/232755/China-carefully.htm
China carefully navigates ties with Singapore, announces gift of pandas
SINGAPORE -- When Chinese president Hu Jintao arrived in Singapore for a state visit this week, he announced China's favorite diplomatic gift — two pandas — but chose his words very carefully.
Hu spoke of the two nations' “close friendship” and “cultural ties,” but avoided any mention of a shared ethnic heritage in a nod to sensitivities in a region with long ties to China, and an equally long wariness of Chinese domination. The pandas would be a “fitting symbol of the close friendship and strong ties between Singapore and China as we celebrate 20 years of diplomatic relations next year,” Singapore's foreign ministry said.
It was not until 1990 that Singapore opened relations with the People's Republic of China, which it had accused of supporting Communist movements in neighboring Malaysia, Indonesia and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Many ethnic Chinese Singaporeans descend from people who fled civil war and Communist rule in the 20th century.
Now, Singapore and its neighbors are eager to build trade ties with China, but have no interest in becoming vassal states. A call by modern Singapore's founding father, Lee Kwan Yew, for the United States to remain engaged in the region ruffled feathers of nationalist Chinese in the mainland.
“The size of China makes it impossible for the rest of Asia, including Japan and India, to match it in weight and capacity in about 20 to 30 years. So we need America to strike a balance,” Lee said in a speech in Washington on October 27.
Powerful currents pull the Chinese of Southeast Asia to greater engagement with China. Singapore's trade with China hit $52.4 billion last year, and its government promotes Mandarin teaching to help business ties. The ties are not just commercial, but strategic. Hu's trip this week to Malaysia and Singapore, the first by a Chinese president in 15 years, included a visit to Malacca, and a view of narrow Straits through which its energy supplies must pass.
China carefully navigates ties with Singapore, announces gift of pandas
SINGAPORE -- When Chinese president Hu Jintao arrived in Singapore for a state visit this week, he announced China's favorite diplomatic gift — two pandas — but chose his words very carefully.
Hu spoke of the two nations' “close friendship” and “cultural ties,” but avoided any mention of a shared ethnic heritage in a nod to sensitivities in a region with long ties to China, and an equally long wariness of Chinese domination. The pandas would be a “fitting symbol of the close friendship and strong ties between Singapore and China as we celebrate 20 years of diplomatic relations next year,” Singapore's foreign ministry said.
It was not until 1990 that Singapore opened relations with the People's Republic of China, which it had accused of supporting Communist movements in neighboring Malaysia, Indonesia and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Many ethnic Chinese Singaporeans descend from people who fled civil war and Communist rule in the 20th century.
Now, Singapore and its neighbors are eager to build trade ties with China, but have no interest in becoming vassal states. A call by modern Singapore's founding father, Lee Kwan Yew, for the United States to remain engaged in the region ruffled feathers of nationalist Chinese in the mainland.
“The size of China makes it impossible for the rest of Asia, including Japan and India, to match it in weight and capacity in about 20 to 30 years. So we need America to strike a balance,” Lee said in a speech in Washington on October 27.
Powerful currents pull the Chinese of Southeast Asia to greater engagement with China. Singapore's trade with China hit $52.4 billion last year, and its government promotes Mandarin teaching to help business ties. The ties are not just commercial, but strategic. Hu's trip this week to Malaysia and Singapore, the first by a Chinese president in 15 years, included a visit to Malacca, and a view of narrow Straits through which its energy supplies must pass.
