Source: Global Times
On the 14th of this month, Singapore officially nominated the current Finance Minister Huang Xuncai as the leader of the country's fourth-generation team, confirming him as the successor of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
As one of the two young "post-70s" ministers in singapore's cabinet (the other is National Development Minister Lee Chi-san), Huang Xuncai, although experienced in politics, has long been unknown behind the scenes, until he led Singapore's anti-epidemic work to emerge, achieving a magnificent transformation from a "small civil servant" to a "future leader", which has attracted widespread attention from international public opinion.
His ancestral home is Hainan Province, China
According to Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, 49-year-old Huang Xuncai was born in An ordinary family in Singapore, with his ancestral home in Hainan Province, China. It is understood that his father traveled to Malaysia with his family as a child, and then settled in Singapore as an adult, working as a salesman before retirement; his mother was a local primary school teacher in Singapore. Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao said that the public housing where the family lived was not in good order, and Huang Xuncai and his brother had personally experienced burglary when they were young: after being tied up by thieves, they watched the gangsters loot valuables from their homes.
Huang Once told The Straits Times that he was "just an ordinary person from an ordinary family." There is no shortage of high-level talents in Singapore's political arena, and there are not a few government officials who have received a good education since childhood and hold a degree from a prestigious school such as Oxbridge, and Huang Xuncai's early educational experience is dwarfed: the primary and secondary schools he attended were "nearby enrollment". However, his parents attach great importance to the education of their children, and have set strict requirements on their two sons since childhood, and have paid close attention to homework and exercise. The Huang brothers themselves are also very hardworking, and when they grow up, one is engaged in politics and one has become an aeronautical engineer. Lianhe Zaobao said that because the family mainly speaks Malay and English, Huang Xuncai's Chinese until 2020 is a "short board". But through hard work, he has been able to speak fluent Mandarin on this year's budget, which has left a deep impression.
On Huang Xuncai's Instagram page, he introduced himself as "Singapore's Finance Minister", "Bookworm", "Guitarist" and "Dog Lover". After graduating from high school, Huang Xuncai went to the United States through a government scholarship to study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, majoring in economics. He is a music lover, and is said to have taught himself guitar as early as the age of 8, loving rock and blues, and chose to study in the United States because it is the hometown of his favorite musician, guitarist Clapton and others.
According to the report, when he was in college, Huang Xuncai and his roommates in the United States were like-minded, and the two would regularly go to the streets to sell art, performing for about two hours each time, and when the "business" was good, they could earn $30 at a time. After entering the political arena, his talent for playing the guitar is also a major highlight. At a New Year's celebration in 2014, Huang Xuncai, then minister of state affairs at the Ministry of Culture, improvised a guitar and won the applause of the whole hall. Recently, he played and sang Minnan folk songs on the short video platform and successfully "broke the circle".
Sink Gange
Lianhe Zaobao used the headline "Shen Gangke to come to the road" to introduce Huang Xuncai's resume. He joined the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Singapore in 1997 as an economist and officially became a government civil servant. In the eyes of some Western media, Huang Xuncai is more like a "technocrat", who has been working in obscurity behind the scenes for a long time, so in recent years he has been regarded by some media as an "unknown small civil servant". In fact, his political resume is very rich, in the past 20 years in politics in the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Education and other at least 8 government departments, has accumulated a wealth of government work experience, in the government budget, medical insurance reform and other work areas have a lot of experience. From 2005 to 2008, he also served as Chief Private Secretary to Lee Hsien Loong, the current Prime Minister of Singapore.
According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, during the COVID-19 epidemic, Huang Xuncai was appointed by the government as one of the co-chairs of Singapore's anti-epidemic cross-departmental working group, and his appearance rate has increased significantly. At that time, Singapore's anti-epidemic work was still being explored, and government officials were often "bombarded" by public opinion, but Huang Xuncai always responded freely, leaving a deep impression on his colleagues and competitors. Not only that, but he also showed a high degree of empathy during the anti-epidemic period, and in a speech in March, he tearfully paid tribute to the anti-epidemic workers, which won widespread favor.
Why him?
According to the South China Morning Post, Huang Xuncai's rise in Singapore's politics coincides with Lee Hsien Loong's desperate search for a successor. In February, Lee Hsien Loong celebrated his 70th birthday, after he had previously said he had no intention of continuing to govern after his seventies. Next, Huang Xuncai is likely to be pushed to the post of deputy prime minister and will complete the transition of power in the next Singapore general election. Taiwan's "Central News Agency" believes that he has proved his ability through anti-epidemic work, and he has performed well when he became finance minister, and can be regarded as the successor candidate who can "best reach consensus" in the party. Linda Lim, a professor at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan in the United States, who understands Huang Xuncai's personality, also believes that Huang Xuncai should be the "safest" option in the ruling party.
Some people believe that Singapore aims to seek stability in the transition of power, and the new leader after taking over the baton may continue the policy of the previous government, but some scholars believe that there is nothing wrong with following Singapore's consistent line. Chuang Ka Ying, an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the National University of Singapore, said that under Singapore's civil service, officials tend to obey orders, follow orders, respect group decisions, and have strong ability at the executive level; as long as he can be cautious and law-abiding, even if the characteristics of governance are not obvious, it does not matter.
The South China Morning Post quoted an analysis that Singapore's diplomacy has always focused on its own interests, strictly abided by neutrality, and pursued a strategy of "not choosing sides", and Huang Xuncai will not make much change at the foreign policy level in the future. However, in the new international situation, the relationship between major powers continues to be tense, and the space for Singapore to benefit from it will continue to shrink, and even bear certain risks and costs because it is caught between the great powers game; it remains to be seen what adjustments Singapore's future leadership will make. Tan Khanh Man, an associate professor of law at Singapore Management University, said Singapore's successive leaders have maintained close ties with China and that the situation will not change due to the transfer of power; he expects That Huang will also visit China every year after taking office.