Timing of Lee's visit proves relations remain resilient

To everyone concerned about the recent vicissitudes in China-Singapore relations, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's ongoing China visit, his first state visit since August 2013, is welcome, and it is being perceived as a sign that the soured bilateral ties are recovering.

After months of unease in their relations, the timing alone - before Lee's planned visit to the United States and the Communist Party of China's upcoming national congress - has bestowed Lee's visit with unusual symbolism, with many reading it as Singapore "repositioning" itself and recalibrating its strategic compass.

Singapore may have been seeking to try and weigh and balance relations with big countries, but a number of unpleasant episodes over the past year sowed rare discomfort between Beijing and Singapore. These began with Singapore urging China to accept the Manila-initiated international "arbitration" over the South China Sea dispute, which Beijing rejected as being illegal and invalid, and culminated in Lee's eye-catching absence from the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in May.