Chinese Premier Li Qiang to visit Singapore to mark 35 years of diplomatic ties

BEIJING – Chinese Premier Li Qiang will visit Singapore later in October, sources familiar with the matter said, in the first trip to the country by China’s No. 2 official in seven years as the governments seek to deepen relations.

Mr Li will visit the city state to

celebrate the 35th anniversary of diplomatic ties

just before attending a gathering of South-east Asian nations in Malaysia from Oct 26, according to the sources, who asked for anonymity discussing private information. The plan is still fluid and subject to change, one of the sources said.

The foreign ministries of China and Singapore did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

China last sent its second-ranked leader to the South-east Asian financial hub in 2018, when then Premier Li Keqiang presided over the exchange of agreements covering trade, finance and other areas.

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong

visited Beijing in June 2025 and met Mr Li Qiang

. It was PM Wong’s first visit outside South-east Asia since he took the top job in 2024.

Singapore, with about 75 per cent of citizens ethnically Chinese, has traditionally enjoyed cordial ties with both Beijing and Washington. Yet a growing diaspora of both blue-collar and wealthy mainland Chinese there has led to greater scrutiny of money flows between the two nations. 

Mr Li, who entered office in 2023, is set to meet regional leaders in Kuala Lumpur after the Singapore leg of his trip. US President Donald Trump has yet to officially confirm his attendance

at the Malaysia summit

, but is widely expected to visit the country as part of an Asia trip that would also include stops in Japan and South Korea. The two leaders’ itineraries could overlap in Malaysia, but there is no announcement of such a plan yet.

South-east Asia has emerged as a focus in China’s diplomatic push. Earlier in 2025, President Xi Jinping visited Malaysia, Vietnam and Cambodia, while Mr Li travelled to Malaysia and Indonesia. BLOOMBERG