JOHN TAN WEE KANG

U2231440D

HA1001 TERM PAPER

QN 2
How should Singapore handle the rise of China?

Singapore’s handling of the rise of China must be guided by the desire to maintain its

sovereignty. China’s rise to power poses a series of unique challenges for Singapore. This is

because of the unique relationship the two countries share.

Despite the natural asymmetry between the two states, with China having significantly more

natural resources, land, manpower and military might, the two states share close economic ties.

Singapore is China’s largest foreign investor, and China is Singapore’s largest trading partner.

The two states also share a unique cultural relationship. Singapore is the only country in the

world besides China and Taiwan with an ethnic Chinese majority.

China, in its rise to becoming a global superpower, seeks a hegemonic status. Despite claiming

otherwise, their actions tell a different story. Having gone on a charm offensive, Xi Jinping’s

China offered economic prosperity to developing nations through programs like the Belt and

Road Initiative. This will leave these nations dependent on China and within their sphere of

influence. In Singapore, because of Singapore’s Chinese majority, they have launched influence

campaigns to impact domestic politics. They have also asserted themselves geographically

through their claim to the South China Sea islands and their assertion that Taiwan is a rogue state

that must be reunified with the motherland.

In this essay, I will be discussing a two-pronged approach to minimise China’s influence on

Singapore as well as how Singapore should handle China’s hegemonic ambitions

Avoiding becoming third China

When Singapore first became independent, then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew took great effort

to avoid being seen as a part of China, being the last of the ASEAN states to establish diplomatic

ties with China.

As China continues to become a dominant economic superpower, Singapore must take steps to

ensure it can function without the Asian giant. This is necessary so as to maintain the city states’

sovereignty.

China and Singapore are currently close economic partners. This is evident by the fact that

Singapore’s investment in China, as of 2015, was over US$121 billion. In addition, according to

China’s customs statistics, Singapore’s trade with China in 2015 amounted to US$79.5 billion,

placing third among ASEAN member states. The two countries have also collaborated on three

government-to-government projects. The partnership has been profitable for Singapore.

Singapore has also expressed support for the Belt and Road Initiative. Then Minister of Foreign

Affairs, K. Shanmugam noted: “One-third of China’s total ‘Belt and Road’ related investments

in all countries is in Singapore. In return, Singapore’s investments in China account for 85% of

the total ‘Belt and Road’ investments made by all countries there.”

As profitable as Singapore’s partnership has been with China, its people’s involvement in the red

giant’s business could come back to bite it. China has applied a carrot-and-stick approach to

Singapore before when displeased with the Singapore government's actions. China exerts

influence via business associations such as the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and

the Singapore Business Federation. China exerts leverage over Singaporean businessmen by

making it harder for them to conduct business, like getting contracts and licenses. One example

was in 2016-2017 when terrexes, the Singapore army’s armoured vehicles, were seized in Hong

Kong after a training exercise in Taiwan. Singaporean businessmen provided feedback to the
government to avoid trouble with China by continuing to train in Taiwan. If China is willing to

seize Singapore’s armoured vehicles and use economic pressure to get Singapore’s own people

to pressure its government, it might threaten more severe forms of punitive economic action like

sanctions in the future. Therefore, for Singapore to maintain its sovereignty, it must be able to

function economically without China. To do so, Singapore should expand its options, investing

in trade with its neighbours and regional partners. The European Union, ASEAN, Japan and the

US are also top trading partners with Singapore. Singapore should continue to deepen ties with

them while it profits from its partnership to hedge its bets.

While Singapore deepens economic ties with its other partners to lessen its reliance on China and

maintain its sovereignty, it must still contend with Chinese influence campaigns at home. The

nascent superpower’s president, Xi Jinping stated in Xinhua, China’s state-run media, “The

realization of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation requires the joint efforts of Chinese

sons and daughters at home and abroad,” This imperative set out by Xi is of particular concern

for Singapore’s Chinese majority. Singapore’s identity is that of a multicultural society. The last

thing the Singapore government wants is the undoing of decades of social engineering that has

enabled a multitude of races to live together harmoniously, and the rise of “Chinese chauvinism”

among some Singaporean Chinese.

China’s influence campaign spreads via business associations, social media such as WhatsApp

and YouTube, as well as clan associations. According to Institute for Strategic

Research(ISREM), China’s influence campaign perpetuated narratives that asked Singapore to

know its place as a Chinese country and to support China’s endeavours in the South China Sea.

Influence campaigns like these are harmful to Singapore’s sovereignty. However, the Singapore

government has taken steps to assert the Singaporean identity through social engineering. For
example, when Singapore became independent, the government ended Chinese-speaking

schools, made English the common lingua franca and encouraged a bilingual population. This

helped create the Singaporean identity and made Chinese Singaporeans become Singaporean

Chinese.

Presently, the Singaporean government has other means of enforcing the Singaporean identity.

When the Chinese government opened the China Cultural Center(CCC) in Singapore in 2012,

they said it was to foster a common identity between China Chinese and Singaporean Chinese. In

response, Singapore Chinese Cultural Center was opened in 2017 and was established in

Singapore’s government. Its vision is that of “a vibrant Singapore Chinese culture, rooted in a

cohesive, multi-racial society”. At its opening, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong emphasised that

Singaporean Chinese and China Chinese were very different in terms of both history and

identity.

Other steps taken to counter China’s influence campaigns include policies like the Foreign

Interference (Countermeasures) Act (FICA) to help limit China’s influence by empowering the

Minister of Home Affairs to issue FICA directions to various entities like social media services

to help authorities investigate or counter hostile communication that is of a potential foreign

nature.

The two-pronged approach will help counter China’s influence on Singapore both economically

and culturally, thereby helping Singapore preserve its sovereignty as the Asian Giant continues

to grow.

Dealing with China’s hegemonic ambitions

Singapore must also contend with China’s hegemonic ambitions within the region. For

Singapore to navigate successfully around China’s ambitions, it should double down on the
identity it has established for itself in international politics as a staunch advocate and follower of

international law, while also deepening security ties with its partners.

Maintaining its identity as a state that supports international law because of its status as a small

state, Singapore needs international institutional norms to be able to ensure that adversarial states

are disinclined from aggressive behaviour.

An example of this was when Singapore issued a statement saying “peaceful resolution of

disputes among claimants in accordance with universally-recognised principles of international

law, including (the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea)” after an international

tribunal ruled in favour of the Philipines’ claim against China in the South China Sea.

The Global Times, a paper considered to be part of the Chinese government's state propaganda,

accused Singapore of raising the issue at the Non-Aligned Movement in Venezuela. Singapore’s

ambassador to China responded, claiming the article was a fabrication and that the Singapore

delegation did no such thing.

From the South China Sea spat, we can tell that China believes Singapore should know its place

as both a Chinese country and a small one at that. China’s retaliation necessitates Singapore’s

deepening of ties with its partners. This was what Singapore did during this period, when

Singapore strengthened its defence agreement with the US, allowing for sophisticated

surveillance places to operate out of Paya Lebar airbase.

Besides deepening ties with the US as a means of preserving Singapore's security, Singapore

should also pursue agreements with its ASEAN neighbours and middle powers like Australia and

India. By building ties with its neighbours and regional partners, it works to improve Singapore’s

security in the face of an ambitious China. It effectively emboldens Singapore to maintain its

identity as a strong supporter of international justice because it has strength in numbers.

Conclusion

Going forward, how Singapore chooses to handle China’s rise will determine the city-state’s

place in geopolitics and its sovereignty. I believe that deepening ties with China economically

will be very beneficial. However, it is important that Singapore tempers that relationship with

caution so as to avoid falling under China’s influence. At home, Singapore must continue to

assert the Singaporean Chinese identity to prevent Chinese influence operations from affecting

domestic politics and Singapore’s sovereignty. As China’s hegemonic ambitions grow, it is

important for Singapore to deepen both its ties with its ASEAN neighbours, and continue to

assert its identity in international politics as an ardent advocate of the rule of international law.