Highlights
The formalizing of diplomatic relations between Singapore and China in October 1990 was the end result of two important past visits: the first by late Singaporean prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, who came to China in 1976; the second by late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, who visited Singapore in 1978.
Bilateral cooperation between the two deepened after Deng went on his famous tour of southern China in 1992 to start China's shift toward its socialist market economy. During this period Deng cited Singapore as a model for China's development.
His remarks prompted a flow of officials to visit Singapore keen to learn about its experiences. Soon after, Lee proposed a joint project to facilitate knowledge sharing as well as establish ties between the countries' younger generation of leaders.
China is now Singapore's largest trading partner and the volume of bilateral trade between the two has increased more than 20-fold since 1990.
"We were lucky that Lee and Deng were leaders at the time when their countries had complementary needs. China was eager to learn governance expertise from others and Singapore was keen to tap the Chinese market," Singapore-Sino expert Sun Jingfeng of Henan Normal University told the Straits Times.
Last year marked the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries. President Tony Tan Keng Yam said in his congratulatory letter to President Xi Jinping that "Our pioneer leaders, particularly Lee Kuan Yew and Deng Xiaoping, laid a strong foundation for the bilateral relationship in the 1970s...I look forward to working with you to build on this solid foundation and further deepen and expand our cooperation to bring greater benefits to our peoples in the next 25 years and beyond".
Ties between Singapore and China would remain strong even after the death of founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, Tan said.
"We have established other platforms," he said. "Our ministers meet very frequently, many delegations of officials from China visit Singapore, and from Singapore to China, to learn from each other," he said.
china daily
(China Daily 05/10/2016 page5)
