Jiang Zemin dies: Sino-S’pore economic ties flourished under ex-China president’s leadership

A file photo of Mr Jiang Zemin and then Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew in 1994. Looking on is then Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO
In his memoirs, Mr Lee Kuan Yew remembered Mr Jiang Zemin as someone whom he could have lively conversations with, and who enjoyed quoting couplets and verses from Chinese literature. PHOTO: REUTERS

BEIJING - Singapore and China established diplomatic relations in 1990, a year after Mr Jiang Zemin officially took over the reins of the Communist Party of China.

The official ties came 12 years after paramount leader Deng Xiaoping made a historic visit to Singapore in 1978 and met with then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, forming a decades-long friendship and the building blocks of close bilateral ties that subsequent Chinese leaders, including Mr Jiang, inherited.

Mr Lee also made a goodwill visit to China in 1976, marking the first of many trips to come.

Singapore was one of the last in South-east Asia to formally recognise China. Mr Lee, mindful of Singapore being perceived as a “third China”, wanted his neighbours to normalise ties with the Asian giant first.

In 2000 – just 10 years after diplomatic ties were established –  when Mr Jiang was waiting to receive Mr Lee in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, he had casually remarked to the Singapore journalists standing by that it was impossible to tell the Singaporeans and the Chinese apart.

The ethnic cosying aside, Sino-Singapore relations during the Jiang era were marked most significantly by the economic ties that drove much of the interaction.

Suzhou Industrial Park, the first government-to-government project, was launched in 1994, with Mr Jiang hailing it as “China’s most important example of bilateral economic cooperation”. The project, which strained relations initially when the local government decided to promote a rival park, paved the way for future inter-governmental collaborations such as the Tianjin Eco-city and Chongqing Connectivity Initiative.

During Mr Jiang’s term, Singapore’s investment in China grew fivefold from 1993 to 1995, from $444 million to $2.4 billion.

Mr Jiang was general secretary of the Communist Party from 1989 to 2002, chairman of the Central Military Commission from 1989 to 2004, and China’s president from 1993 to 2003.

Like Mr Deng, Mr Jiang also had a firm friendship with Mr Lee. The two men often met, and Mr Jiang was said to value Mr Lee’s views on how the United States viewed China, the Taiwan issue and other global matters.

In his memoirs, Mr Lee remembered Mr Jiang as someone whom he could have lively conversations with, and who enjoyed quoting couplets and verses from Chinese literature. He also described Mr Jiang as highly intelligent, well-read, having a gift for languages and “a surprise” as he had not expected a Chinese communist leader to be such an extrovert.

Mr Jiang also spoke Russian, English, German and Romanian. At one meeting with Mr Lee, he said: “I have an interpreter but let us not waste time. You’ll speak in English, I can understand you. I’ll speak in Chinese, you can understand me, and when you don’t, my interpreter will help.”

Mr Jiang, 96, died on Wednesday in Shanghai due to leukaemia and multiple organ failure, state news agency Xinhua reported.

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