Largely reflective of my personal experience, Pew also noted that older Singaporeans have more positive views of China and prefer closer economic ties than their younger compatriots.
Among this elite group, perceptions of China were significantly more critical. Americans who see Singapore as a friend of the United States might find the Pew report disappointing. Apart from Greece, Singapore was the only country in the survey where views of China among the general population were more favorable than views of the United States.
According to a senior U. Not only is the United States the largest source of foreign investment in Singapore, but the Singaporean-U. The web of interactions between the Singaporean and U.
Increasing tensions between Beijing and Washington, however, mean that the island is effectively torn between two lovers.
For each move toward the United States, it has made a similar move toward China. Take the extension of a Singaporean-U.
Less than a month after the memorandum was extended, Singapore and China updated their defense agreement, which includes provisions for joint military training, a regular ministerial dialogue, a visiting forces agreement, and a bilateral hotline. But that balance is getting increasingly difficult to achieve. As one U. Navy admiral told me, Singapore is walking down an increasingly precarious tightrope between the two great powers. Both superpowers are trying to pull in their own direction.
But it is an open secret that this strategy targets China. In , Singapore reportedly turned down a U. China could soon ask for more formal access to Singaporean facilities by Chinese warships. China is pressuring Singapore on multiple fronts as well. In , nine Singapore Armed Forces infantry carrier vehicles were detained in Hong Kong after they had participated in military exercises in Taiwan.
Also that year, a Chinese major general said Beijing should take retaliatory action against Singapore for internationalizing the disputes in the South China Sea. The major general said Singapore had played a key role in putting the maritime dispute between China and its neighbors at the top of the agenda at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. This was disputed by Singapore. Kausikan said that China uses tactics ranging from public diplomacy to illegal covert operations to sway decision-makers.
In , Singapore expelled Huang Jing, a Chinese American academic, on suspicion of working for a foreign power. The Singaporean authorities did not explicitly name the power, but it is widely assumed to have been China.
This June, a Singaporean man, Dickson Yeo, was detained for two years under the Internal Security Act for being a threat to Singapore after first having been arrested in December.
The Internal Security Department said that Yeo had acted as paid agent of a foreign state. Yeo had already served a month jail term in the United States, where he was convicted of spying for China. As Chinese power becomes more ascendant in Asia, mainland Chinese would expect Singaporeans—in particular, members of the Chinese Singaporean majority—not only to be drawn to them but also to think like them.
This is pure hokum. Such nuanced arguments are usually given short shrift by mainland Chinese. And neither Beijing nor Washington is likely to let up the pressure. Generally, the smaller the country, the more concerned it is about its larger neighbors. As a result, Singapore has remained ever vigilant. Despite the end of the Cold War, it has continued to conscript its young men into national service for two years and spend over 20 percent of its national budget on defense.
In one troubling incident, a Japanese helicopter carrier sailing to Singapore spotted a Chinese submarine lurking near the entrance to the strait in Hence, Singapore has kept up its guard. Singapore fields respectable numbers of the latest military equipment, which will include a dozen American-built F fighters and four German-built Invincible-class Type SG attack submarines in the coming years.
Not stopping there, Singapore has permitted the United States to station on a rotational basis one of its littoral combat ships at Changi Naval Base since and to fly P-8 anti-submarine warfare aircraft from Paya Lebar Air Base since Singapore even built one of the few piers in Southeast Asia with a draft deep enough to accommodate an American aircraft carrier. No doubt having a U. All in all, Singapore has attained a remarkable degree of physical security.
In , foreign hackers compromised the health records of a quarter of all Singaporeans. A year later, Symantec, a global computer-security firm, traced the cyberattack to a state-sponsored espionage group. While the firm did not disclose where the group was based, most suspect it was China. Greater economic growth in China meant more maritime trade and profits for Singapore.
But things change. That could have long-term ramifications for Singapore, since the BRI envisions a new network of trade routes radiating from China, mostly over land across Central Asia and continental Southeast Asia rather than through the Malacca Strait. One such city is Zhoushan. Specifically, China aims to be 70 percent self-sufficient in several targeted high-tech industries. To do so, it has been building the capacity to ramp up production of commonly used electronic integrated circuits.
That is a possibility not lost on some Singaporeans.
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