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How will Singapore cope as the vice of US-China rivalry tightens?

Beyond repeating the point that we don’t want to be forced to choose, there are steps – external and internal – that Singapore can take to ease the pressure from the two superpowers.

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Much of the posturing by the US and China is driven as much by domestic political interests as they are by anything else.

Much of the posturing by the US and China is driven as much by domestic political interests as they are by anything else.

PHOTO: REUTERS

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The bilateral relationship between the two largest economies in the world is not in a good place, and has not been so for many years now.

If anything, the situation remains brittle, and further deterioration can be easily triggered by

another “balloon incident”,

another round of tariffs and sanctions, an incident at sea, or a visit involving Taiwan. For us in South-east Asia, the proverbial question of “choice” hangs like the Sword of Damocles over our region.

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