Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong yesterday met with China’s leader Xi Jinping, pledging to reinforce his nation’s bilateral relationship with China against a backdrop of global economic uncertainty stemming from the recently announced U.S. tariffs.
“In this time of global turbulence and uncertainty, I believe the China-Singapore relationship is more important than before,” Wong told Xi during their meeting in the in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Nikkei Asia reported.
“We can work together to establish closer ties and also to cooperate in regional and multilateral platforms to continue to strengthen multilateralism in the rules-based global order.”
The Jun 22-26 visit, Wong’s first since becoming Singapore’s prime minister last year, is intended to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the establishment of Singapore-China diplomatic relations and to “reaffirm our mutual commitment to strengthen bilateral ties.” As is customary in China-Singapore relations, the two leaders referenced the historic visit to Singapore by Deng Xiaoping in 1978, 12 years before the formal establishment of diplomatic relations, and then-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew’s “early support for China’s opening-up” in the late 1970s, which “laid the strong foundation for bilateral cooperation.”
Wong also met with Premier Li Qiang on Monday, which saw a similar airing of bilateral homilies, with the Singaporean leader hailing “a partnership built on a deep level of mutual respect, trust and understanding.” Wong then met with Zhao Leji, the chairman of the National People’s Congress, and was scheduled to travel to Tianjin today to attend the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions – the so-called “Summer Davos” – before heading home.
While the visit does not appear to have yielded much in the way of new initiatives or agreements, Wong and Xi “reaffirmed the excellent state of bilateral relations” ahead of this year’s anniversary, Singapore’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “Both leaders recognized that Singapore and China have been part of each other’s development journey and reaffirmed their commitment to further deepen and broaden this enduring partnership,” it stated.
Tellingly, the two leaders also “agreed on the importance of maintaining open and inclusive trade as a key driver of economic growth and stability” and “reaffirmed their support for a rules-based multilateral trading system.”
This was an implicit reference to the uncertainty that has followed U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement in April of sweeping “reciprocal tariffs,” which threaten to unpick global supply chains and impede the flow of global trade – a prospect that Singaporean officials view with alarm.
Compared to neighbors like Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia, the city-state was lightly touched by the tariffs. As the only ASEAN member state to have a trade deficit with the U.S., it was hit only with the 10 percent “baseline” tariff that Trump imposed on every nation. Nonetheless, Wong was harshly critical of the U.S. move, arguing in a speech in early April that any American concerns about Chinese trade practices should be handled through the World Trade Organization.
“What the U.S. is doing now is not reform. It is rejecting the very system it created,” he said in the speech. Wong expressed disappointment at the decision by the U.S. to impose a 10 percent tariff on Singapore, “especially considering the deep and long-standing friendship between our two countries.” He added, “These are not actions one does to a friend.”
The tariffs, announced in early April, are set to come into effect on July 9, after the 90-day postponement announced by Trump. China, meanwhile, has been a primary target of the Trump tariff regime, with a 55 percent duty currently in place on Chinese imports to the U.S. Since the announcement, Beijing has sought to position itself as a champion of the rules-based multilateral trading system – an appeal that is likely to find receptive audience in many parts of the world, including Southeast Asia.
In his comments to Wong, Xi made reference to the “current complex and turbulent international situation” and said that China was ready to “tighten the bonds of collaboration and work together to meet challenges and bring greater well-being to the people of both countries.”
Given their long track record of consistent and carefully calibrated foreign policy, there is little likelihood that Singaporean leaders will tumble headlong into China’s embrace. It is nonetheless true that to the extent that the U.S. shows itself to be a capricious and unpredictable interlocutor, Asian nations will seek to diversify their relations and strengthen relations with partners that are more reliable and like-minded – at least in terms of trade and economics.
