MM Lee: Invest in China with confidence, guanxi

Business Times - 13 Jul 2010

(SINGAPORE) Singaporeans looking to invest in China should do so with confidence and the requisite 'guanxi', said Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew at the FutureChina Global Forum last night.
'Singapore's businessmen are largely welcomed in China. Many Chinese officials from the various provinces come to Singapore for training in urban management, and they understand that Singapore has a clean system,' he said in Mandarin.
'Some people say that Taiwanese are 'wu qing' (merciless), Hong Kong's people are 'wu chi' (shameless) and Singaporeans are 'wu zhi' (ignorant). But it is the ignorant that people feel are honest and reliable,' he said to much laughter from the 500 businessmen, government officials, academics and representatives of civil society present at the dinner dialogue.
The FutureChina Global Forum, organised by Business China in celebration of 20 years of diplomatic ties between Singapore and China, hopes to build a 'community of insiders' from business, political, academic, technological and cultural fields which might then hold annual or biennial gatherings here to share insights on China's developments, said Business China chairman Chua Thian Poh.
During the hour-long dialogue moderated by Singapore Press Holdings senior executive vice-president Robin Hu, Mr Lee fielded questions in both English and Mandarin on issues ranging from China's foreign relations, domestic political succession and political system, to the rising giant's relations with Singapore.
In response to a question on what Singapore might best teach China, Mr Lee said: 'Singapore is a small country, we cannot presume to teach other countries. If the Chinese are interested in certain aspects of how Singapore does things and request that we show them, of course we will do that, but we are a small country and would not have the audacity to instruct.'
'How can a population of four million teach a population of 1.3 billion how to eat rice?' he added, drawing laughs from the audience.
But there is room for mutual learning, especially between the younger generations. 'What can we learn from each other? Well, we have quite a number of mainland Chinese immigrants. They are very hardworking, they are very serious, their children do well in schools, giving our children enormous competition, that's good incentive for our children to do better,' Mr Lee said.
'What can we teach the Chinese? Bilingualism - understanding the world without translation. English is the second language of all countries that do not have it as their first language. Without it, you are at a disadvantage,' said Mr Lee. China needs to have 10 to 20 per cent of its population speaking English to create an English-speaking environment, he said.
The fundamental difference between the younger generations of Chinese in China and those in Singapore though, is one of mindset. 'We are in South-east Asia, and our outlook on any strategic issue must be from a South-east Asian point of view. They (the Chinese) are part of a huge continent and on their way to becoming a colossal power, so we start off from two different scales,' Mr Lee said.