What would Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew say about ‘old friend’ China’s current ties with US?

As the late leader’s 100th birth anniversary nears, former Singapore newspaper editor Han Fook Kwang looks back at Lee’s past remarks to gauge what he would make of the world now

Lee foresaw China’s rise, but did not believe a military conflict between Beijing and Washington was inevitable. He also said continued US presence in Asia would help counter an assertive China

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Singapore’s former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in November 2007. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 9:30am, 9 Sep 2023

The world has changed a fair bit since Lee Kuan Yew’s passing eight years ago. He did not live to see US-China relations plummet to its lowest level since the two sides established diplomatic relations in 1979. The Ukraine war then was as improbable as Brexit, artificial intelligence was a footnote in scientific journals and the climate change Paris Agreement had yet to be signed.

Lee was a giant in Singapore, heading the government for 31 years since self-government in 1959, and still influential as senior minister after he stepped down as prime minister in 1990.

He governed with a steely determination to transform the country into the modern, thriving city it is today, with one of the highest per-capita incomes in the world.

A commuter passes by a signboard bearing an image of the late first prime minister Lee Kuan Yew in a train station at the central business district in Singapore in March 2015. Photo: Reuters

Abroad, he was known as an international statesman whose views on global issues were sought by leaders from East and West, especially by those who wanted to understand Asia, particularly China.

Former US president Richard Nixon once said that had Lee lived in another time and another place, he might have “attained the world stature of a Churchill, a Disraeli, or a Gladstone”.

When Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping exhorted his countrymen in 1992 to learn from Singapore, he said: “We ought to use their experience as an example. And we ought to manage things even better than they do.”

As Singapore commemorates the 100th anniversary of his birth this year, it is fitting to ask: what would Lee Kuan Yew make of the world now, and how might he advise political leaders what to do?

Lee Kuan Yew (front, left) welcoming then Chinese Vice-Premier Deng Xiaoping in Singapore in November 1978. Photo: Xinhua