Raising concerns about the South China Sea does not make Singapore, or other Asian nations, anti-China

Tim J. Huxley and Alexander Neill say the issue is on their agenda because leaders have a huge and legitimate stake in regional security, and China’s militarisation of regional waters is not helping

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As a potentially vulnerable small state, it would be dangerous for Singapore to accept that any other country has the right to act as its “big brother”. Illustration: Craig Stephens

Published: 11:44am, 7 Oct 2016Updated: 7:05pm, 7 Oct 2016

Since last month, Singapore – a long-established friend of China – has surprisingly found itself in Beijing’s cross hairs. The city state has faced criticism in the Chinese state media over its alleged attempt to table a South China Sea-related item at the 17th Non-Aligned Movement summit in Venezuela, and also regarding its close defence relations with the United States. The annual Asia Security Summit, the Shangri-La Dialogue, organised in Singapore by our organisation, has also been in the firing line.

What’s really making Beijing angry with Singapore?

On October 1, this newspaper reported Major General Jin Yinan (金一南), a professor at the PLA’s National Defence University, as saying that China should take retaliatory measures against Singapore for its role in internationalising the South China Sea dispute. He also accused Singapore of stirring up US-China tension, and questioned Singapore’s motives in hosting the Shangri-La Dialogue.

General Jin’s harsh comments were reported in the immediate wake of a highly public spat between Singapore’s ambassador to China and the editor of the hardline Communist Party tabloid, the Global Times, over Singapore’s role at the Venezuela summit, where it supported efforts to include in the leaders’ joint statement a reference to the common position of members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on the South China Sea.

Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of the Communist Party mouthpiece Global Times, took Singapore to task over its role at the Venezuela summit, where it supported efforts to include in the leaders’ joint statement a reference to the common position of Asean members on the South China Sea. Photo: Simon Song

How China is using its Global Times attack dog to intimidate Singapore

In the months before the international Permanent Court of Arbitration released a judgement in July which comprehensively rejected China’s expansive territorial claims in the South China Sea, Beijing’s propaganda machinery went into overdrive in an effort to pre-emptively discredit the ruling, which it correctly anticipated would have negative implications for China. Concurrently, key figures from China’s strategic community promulgated China’s own narrative for its claim to the sea and its features, which has been described by officials as one of China’s “core interests”.

In the wake of the court’s ruling, hardliners in Beijing are now evidently redoubling their efforts to undermine any common diplomatic position among Southeast Asian states which might further complicate China’s ambitions to dominate regional waters. Since 2012, this policy has already blighted efforts within Asean to project a united Southeast Asian response. China is now apparently taking the contest into non-Asean arenas, and seems willing to use bullying tactics against Southeast Asian countries that choose to withstand its pressure.

General Jin, who was a middle-ranking member of the PLA delegations to the Shangri-La Dialogue in 2015 and 2016, appears in his comments to reflect concerns in Beijing that Singapore’s government and the International Institute for Strategic Studies have intentionally highlighted the South China Sea dispute at the Shangri-La Dialogue.