Dear ST reader,
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is in China this week, where he has met the leaders of Guangdong and Hainan, and will meet President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang on Friday and Saturday. It is his first visit since China refreshed its top leadership following the 20th party congress in October 2022 and the annual parliamentary meetings in March.
Across half the world in Washington DC, TikTok’s head honcho Chew Shou Zi, was interrogated by the US House Energy and Commerce Committee, as the Chinese app finds itself caught in the cross-hairs of the broader geopolitical tussle between China and the United States. US correspondent Charissa Yong sat through five hours of the heated hearing to give her take of how the Singaporean and former Hwa Chong boy performed under pressure.
Reconnecting, post-Covid
Nearly four years after his last visit, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is on a hopscotch trip across China where he is meeting national and provincial leaders, including President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang, newly elected after China’s parliamentary meetings two weeks ago.
The first port of call was Guangdong where during his meeting with Guangdong chief Huang Kunming, PM Lee said overall China-Singapore ties are very good and that Singapore would like to take the relationship to the next level. He also visited government-to-government projects such as the Guangzhou Knowledge City and met Singaporeans.
In Hainan for the Boao Forum, the Singapore leader took the audience of Chinese political and corporate leaders through the impact of the troubled relationship between China and the US, and underscored the importance of countries in Asia forming regional groupings “rather than a hub and spokes model” to strengthen the region’s resilience.
Next stop: Beijing.
Read more:
Chaos, conflict must not be allowed in Asia or the future will be lost: Chinese Premier Li Qiang
TikTok in the dock
An app known most for its dance videos, TikTok is at risk of being banned in the US, and its CEO Chew Shou Zi sought to convince American congressmen that it was not a national security threat even if owned by Chinese company ByteDance. All stops were pulled out, from earnest references to his Singaporean background and his Taiwan-American wife to flying in influencers on first class into Washington DC to lobby lawmakers.
But despite all the heat generated by the hearing, any move to ban the app will take a while to materialise.
Read more:
US Congress hearing on dangers posed by Chinese communist party cranks up momentum to confront China
When Sino-US acrimony spills over to home ownership in Texas
Welcome, welcome!
The curbs are gone and Chinese tourists are on the march.
In this Asian Insider package, our correspondents in Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia look at how South-east Asian countries are laying out the red carpet for Chinese visitors and what has changed from before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Read more:
Vivian urges China to restore flights, connections to pre-Covid-19 levels
Why Chinese tourists are not totally ready to make a revenge comeback
A cold welcome for Chinese tourists
From San Francisco to Bengaluru
The Great Retrenchment in the tech sector in America and around the world has led to a boom for India, as many of its techies decided to go home and plunge into its fast-growing economy. Among them is Mr Manu Dhundi, 35, who gave up his job as a software developer for LinkedIn in San Francisco and returned to Bengaluru in December to pursue his dream in the city’s booming tech start-up ecosystem.
Read more:
Seeing opportunities in India, he quit Google in Silicon Valley
Can India’s soft power build on Naatu Naatu’s success?
Tech firms slash jobs amid uncertainties: 8 high-profile layoffs in 2022
