‘You have to keep on making it better and better’: PM Lee on Singapore-China relationship

Singapore’s partnership with China has to stay relevant and not become stagnant, said PM Lee Hsien Loong. PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO

BEIJING - Singapore and China have to keep working at their relationship, because it does not “just automatically stay fine”, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong as he ended his official week-long trip to China, the first in four years.

“You have to keep on making it better and better. We are never satisfied,” he told Singapore reporters on Saturday before he left Beijing, where he had met Chinese leaders including President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang.

PM Lee is among the first few foreign leaders to visit China after a sweeping leadership reshuffle at the party congress last October and parliamentary session in March. Mr Xi on Friday pointed out that PM Lee was one of the most frequent visitors to the country among foreign leaders, while PM Lee told the Chinese President that he usually tries to visit once a year.

On Saturday, he and Mr Li took the two nations’ bilateral relationship up a notch, steering it towards a partnership based on “high-quality” projects such as those in the digital technology domain, green economy and supply chains.

“These are not simply, I have something you don’t have, you have something I don’t have, so we exchange, and we are all happy,” said PM Lee, defining what the “high quality” emphasis in their upgraded relations meant.

“These are ideas that I have and you have, and we create a new, more effective, more creative idea together.”

As the global environment changes, so do the needs and priorities of the two countries. Hence, Singapore’s partnership with China also has to stay relevant and not become stagnant, said PM Lee, following a ceremony at the Great Hall of the People where six deals were signed between the two countries. A seventh MOU was signed on Friday between Singapore and the Beijing government.

Citing Suzhou Industrial Park, the first intergovernmental project started nearly three decades ago as a township development, PM Lee said the priorities for China then were to attract and manage investments in a modern business park.

“Now China knows how to do all those things,” he said, adding that the park has moved on to high-tech activities and research ventures by Singapore and Chinese universities. “So it is kept up to date, and it has kept itself relevant.”

Likewise, the upgrading of the 14-year-old China-Singapore Free Trade Agreement to widen its scope is also carried out in the same spirit.

PM Lee has also taken the opportunity while in Beijing to nudge Chinese officials to move faster to restore flights so that “we will be able to get more people to flow”.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (left) with China Premier Li Qiang at the Great Hall of the People on April 1. PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO

Air connectivity is still half of what it used to be before the pandemic, and China has not reinstated visa-free travel for tourists except for the province of Hainan.

“I mentioned this with the Premier, the Premier says he will look at it. I think the Chinese people will want to travel too, and we’re looking forward to seeing them at Marina Bay and the Merlion is looking forward to taking pictures with them.”

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