Qi Xuan: This is a question about Taiwan. Hopefully it is not so spicy. Singapore has always been trying to keep peace and facilitate the dialogue between the two sides across the Taiwan Strait, the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China, Taiwan. Do you view the possibility that the PRC using war to reunify with Taiwan will increase in the next Trump presidency, considering he is more flexible in negotiation? If so, how will Singapore react to try and keep peace between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, as she always did in history.
LHL: First of all, we have never tried to keep the peace. We have always prayed for peace. There is a big difference! It is beyond our powers. We wish both sides well. We are friends with both sides of the Taiwan Strait, and we hope that they will be able to have a stable, peaceful relationship, and any changes will happen peacefully and in a way which is acceptable to both sides. It has become more complicated over time. I do not know how it will evolve in the next four years, but this is a dynamic which has longer than a four-year horizon. And I do not believe the views which are sometimes expressed to say 2028, or some year like that, is crucial, and therefore something is about to happen in the next term of the US government.
https://www.pmo.gov.sg/Newsroom/SM-Lee-Hsien-Loong-Conversation-at-the-2024-Edwin-L-Godkin-Lecture
Lee, now a senior minister in the city state, was responding to a question at a forum in the United States. He was asked for his views on whether mainland China would be emboldened to make a move on Taiwan during Trump’s second term.
“I do not know how it will evolve in the next four years but this is a dynamic which has longer than a four-year horizon,” he said during a question and answer segment at the Harvard University’s John F Kennedy School of Government on Tuesday.
https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/poli...lays-fears-taiwan-conflict-during-trumps-term
