On August 21, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong delivered a speech on Singapore's National Day in accordance with the usual practice.
Lee Hsien Loong's speech this year is plain in speech, clear in thinking, sharp in vision, and grounded in content, and after it was transmitted to China, it immediately circled countless fans, and people praised Lee Hsien Loong at the same time, but also wondered which beautiful lady could be worthy of this dashing and wise Singapore Prime Minister?
The so-called "tiger husband without a dog wife", Lee Hsien Loong's wife is indeed not an idle person, she is the famous former CEO of Temasek Holdings Ho Jing.
The He family has a daughter who has just grown up, and her career is red and she is married to a virtuous husband
Ho Ching was born on 27 March 1953 to a Chinese family in Singapore. His father, Ho Wing Hung, was an influential businessman in Singapore.
As the old saying goes, "All the Confucian crowns are mistaken", but He Jing, who was born in the family of Jujia, was not a rich second generation who was pampered and treated well, but a diligent and hard-working young man.
He Jing received a presidential scholarship at the age of 18; After graduating from secondary school, he was admitted to the National University of Singapore, which is known as the first institution of higher learning in Asia, and obtained a master's degree in engineering; In 1980, he went to the famous Stanford University in the United States to study abroad and obtained a master's degree in electrical engineering.
After graduating and returning to China, He Jing, who was only 29 years old, was appointed deputy director of the Defense Laboratory of the Singapore Ministry of National Defense, which can be described as a glamorous and envious of many parents.
One day in 1985, Ho Jing accompanied her family to Sentosa Island in southern Singapore and met Lee Hsien Loong, who was catching crabs on the island.
The two fell in love at first sight and soon reached the point of talking about marriage, but He Jing's family strongly opposed the marriage.
The main reason was that Lee Hsien Loong was not alone at that time, he also took the two children left by his deceased wife, after all, few parents were willing to let their daughters be mothers to other people's children as soon as they crossed the door.
However, He Jing insisted on her own opinion and married Lee Hsien Loong at the end of that year.
Some people in China say that He Jing married Lee Hsien Loong to climb the high branch. But in fact, in Singapore, where the country was founded as a businessman, the status of businessmen was much higher than that of officials, and although Lee Hsien Loong's father was the prime minister, he was not much more prominent than Ho Jing's father, who was a well-known entrepreneur;
On the other hand, at that time, Ho Jing was already the deputy director of the Defense Laboratory of the Singapore Ministry of National Defense, while Lee Hsien Loong was only a retired brigadier general waiting at home. If you say climb the high branch, it should also be Lee Hsien Loong pan He Jing.
Later, He Jing herself said that the reason she fell in love with Lee Hsien Loong was his humor and kindness, not the so-called prominent family and great future.
The married life of the two is very happy, of course, it is not always a group of harmony, when the opinions are different, the two will also do "positive arguments", in the old Chinese saying, it is often a small fight, and this is precisely a beneficial way to enhance the relationship between husband and wife.
After marriage, He Jing bore two children for Lee Hsien Loong, but he also regarded the children left by Lee Hsien Loong's ex-wife as his own.
Lee Hsien Loong's eldest daughter suffered from albinism and had a visual impairment, so He Jing took her around to seek medicine and ask for medical treatment, and these father-in-law Lee Kuan Yew saw in his eyes and remembered in his heart, and did not forget to praise his good daughter-in-law when writing his memoirs in his later years.
What the ancients said about starting a family first and then starting a career is reasonable. After Lee Hsien Loong and Ho Jing became a family, their careers did indeed embark on the fast track.
Lee Hsien Loong served as Singapore's Minister of Defence, Singapore's Minister of Trade and Industry, and was promoted to Deputy Prime Minister in 1990.
He Jing's side was also unyielding. She joined ST Engineering in 1987, first as Deputy Head of Engineering, before being promoted to President and Ceo.
During the period of THEP project, He Jing showed superb corporate management skills, and through a series of reforms and restructurings, she built this small company on the verge of bankruptcy into a star enterprise with an adult revenue of more than S$20 billion.
In 2001, He Jing retired from the new science and technology industry.
After retiring, He Jing had planned to live a leisurely life with his grandson, but at this moment, Danabanan, who was the chairman of Temasek at the time, found Ho Jing.
At the beginning of the autumn of survival, he was ordered to turn the tide and save the lion city
Temasek was founded in 1974 by Lee Kuan Yew, then Prime Minister of Singapore, with a 100% stake in Singapore's Ministry of Finance.
Temasek is Singapore's premier jumbo, which directly or indirectly controls more than 2,000 large and small enterprises in Singapore, covering various important sectors such as finance, transportation, communications, real estate, energy and so on, with the total number of employees accounting for 5% of Singapore's employed population and total assets accounting for 10% of Singapore's GDP.
It is no exaggeration to say that Temasek dominates singapore's economic lifeblood.
But by the 1990s, Temasek had gradually lost its aura, followed by the Asian financial crisis and the 9/11 incident in the United States, and by 2002, Temasek's return on investment had hovered at a low of 3% for a decade, far below the average of 13% for the world's top 500 companies in the same period.
Temasek desperately needed to find a strong man to take him out of the woods.
Danabanan then thought of He Jing, who had turned the tide in the new science and technology.
For the sudden invitation, He Jing was once very hesitant, she knew that this was a thankless job, and if she did a good job, others would not credit her with all the credit, and if she did not do well, her reputation would be lost in its entirety.
In the end, under the dual inspiration of mission and responsibility, He Jing still decided to put aside personal honor and humiliation and accept the order in danger.
But what she did not expect was that international public opinion actually questioned whether she had come to power by "nepotism." The main reason was that Lee Hsien Loong was also the Minister of Finance at the time, while Temasek was a wholly owned state-owned enterprise by the Ministry of Finance.
In the face of gossip, He Jing can do it by speaking with strength.
He Jing, as soon as she took office, carried out drastic reforms.
The first step is to change the office space. The company's office was moved from the luxurious "Temasek Building" in the financial district to an ordinary office building next to Orchard Road, and the staff's office was changed from a separate office to an open desk, releasing a new attitude of low-key and pragmatic.
The second step is to streamline institutions. By consolidating all seven departments within the group into three departments: strategic development department, capital resource management department and enterprise development department, the company's organizational framework is more streamlined and the management is more flat.
The third step is to do nothing. The first is to ask the Ministry of Finance for the right to "rule by nothing" and not to participate in the day-to-day operations of the company except for the appointment of board members and the review of financial reports; This is followed by the decentralization of power to subordinate enterprises. In addition to exercising supervision in accordance with market rules, the head office shall not participate in its investment, business and operational decisions, and take the initiative to do nothing.
A series of reforms quickly had an immediate effect, with the company generating a profit of S$7.4 billion in her first year at Temasek, 30 times the profit earned the previous year, and the company's return to shareholders increased to a staggering 46%.
In the nearly two decades since then, Ho Jing has led Temasek through the thorns and thorns, creating good results one after another.
By the time Ho leaves office in 2021, Temasek's net portfolio value has soared from S$90 billion to S$381 billion.
Meanwhile, Temasek's 1-year total shareholder return was 24.53%, 3-year 7.29%, 10-year 7% and 20-year total shareholder return of 8%, making it the "Best Investment Company in Asia".
Ho Jing recreated Temasek, the pillar of Singapore's economy, that is, recreated Singapore, so there is overseas public opinion that Lee Hsien Loong should be most grateful to his wife.
Insisting on justice stands up for Hong Kong, and love and hate are clearly afraid of old beauty
Singaporeans have the same species, the same lineage and the same language as China, and have a deep affection for China. Mr. and Mrs. Lee Hsien Loong are no exception.
But Singapore has chosen a neutral foreign policy over its own strength. Therefore, as the prime minister of a country, Lee Hsien Loong cannot express too much personal feelings in his daily words and deeds.
His wife, He Jing, as a non-government official, has a lot of love and hatred, and often supports China on social platforms.
In 2019, there was a horrific riot in Hong Kong, but some US politicians deliberately reversed black and white, slandered the legitimate law enforcement of the Hong Kong police, and beautified the atrocities of extremists in Hong Kong, which caused the dissatisfaction of many international justice people, including He Jing.
On June 1, 2020, He Jing retweeted a comic on social media.
A Trump-like figure in the comics praised the riots in Hong Kong as democracy, but denounced the same riots in Minnesota as thugs.
Although He Jing did not say much, but thinking of the fact that she had previously posted on social platforms to hold the Hong Kong police, He Jing's connotation of Trump and the mocking attitude of the Us double standard are self-evident.
After the news was sent, righteous people supported He Jing, and even the People's Daily specially issued an article to praise her.
But at the same time, she was also insulted and attacked by a small group of forces, and friends and family advised her to keep a low profile. But He Jing was unmoved and continued to go her own way on the issue of connotation of the United States.
Soon after, she posted a picture of blacks and whites washing their feet in a basin of water on social media, this time referring to the frequent outbreaks of racial discrimination across the United States at that time.
During the epidemic, Western countries led by the United States have poured dirty water on China in droves, and the New York Times even published an article calling out that "China is the real sick man of East Asia." ”
He Jing once again stepped forward, and his strength returned to: "So what has been exposed in the death case of influenza B in the United States?" ”
Affection for Shenzhou to help reform, bullish China plus investment
He Jing's closeness to China is not only manifested in words, but also in actual actions.
In 2004, as CEO of Temasek, He Jinggang set up an office in Beijing and officially launched operations in China.
In the following decades, He Jing has been bullish on China, optimistic about the Chinese market, and continues to re-invest in Chinese assets, and by 2021, when He Jing left office, Chinese assets accounted for as much as 27% of Temasek's portfolio, not only far exceeding other countries and regions, but also surpassing Temasek's Singapore.
During his investment in China, He Jing not only made Temasek get rich returns, but also objectively promoted China's development.
In 2004, China launched the reform of the shareholding system of commercial banks. At that time, China's major commercial banks were not as fragrant as they are now. At that time, the non-performing loan ratio of the four major banks exceeded 25%, the capital adequacy ratio was less than 5%, and at the same time, the problems of insufficient internal control management of banks, imbalance of credit structure, and weak risk control were also more prominent.
Therefore, international investors at that time were generally not optimistic about the prospects of China's commercial bank stock reform, and if an internationally renowned investment company like Temasek could participate in the share reform of state-owned commercial banks at this time, it would undoubtedly be a confidence vote for China's financial reform.
To this end, at that time, the relevant leaders of the state also specially received He Jing and invited her to participate in the stock reform of commercial banks.
He Jing did not live up to expectations and led Temasek to participate in the share reform of large state-owned banks such as China Construction Bank, Bank of China and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.
Temasek's stake has not only enhanced the confidence of international investors in China's banking sector, but also brought advanced technical experience and expertise to major banks, helping them optimize their corporate governance structures, improve their risk management and core competitiveness.
In addition, He Jing has also contributed a lot to the reform of China's state-owned enterprises.
Temasek, led by Ho Ching, is known as the "Singapore" Sasacile. Through the way of the board of directors established in the zhenglian company, it formed a mutually restrictive relationship of cooperation and supervision between the zhenglian enterprises, so that the state-owned enterprises had the same efficiency as private enterprises, which was of great reference significance for the restructuring of China's large state-owned enterprises at that time.
In this regard, He Jing has no reservations, poured his heart into teaching, in 2005 with the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission set up a cooperation group to guide the central enterprises to carry out the construction of the board of directors, now almost all central enterprises and state-owned enterprises have established a board system, the competitiveness of state-owned enterprises significantly improved, which has to be said to be another major contribution of He Jing.
While participating in the reform of state-owned enterprises, He Jing also vigorously supports the development of China's private enterprises.
Temasek has invested in a series of star companies such as Tencent, Meituan, Alibaba, JD Logistics, Cainiao Network, Xiaomi, WuXi AppTec, SenseTime and Yuanqi Forest.
In the start-up and development time of these enterprises, He Jing's investment is at least the icing on the cake, if not carbon in the snow, these enterprises have now grown into the mainstay of China's private enterprises, but also profoundly changed our lives.
In 2021, He Jing retired from Temasek, but her relationship with China did not end there.
As early as 2019, He Jing was invited to become an overseas member of the advisory board of the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University.
The Advisory Board of the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University was initiated by Premier Zhu Rongji and served as the honorary chairman. The committee brings together more than 50 political and business leaders at home and abroad, such as former British Prime Minister Brown, Apple CEO Cook and so on are members of the committee. On this platform, He Jing will continue to provide suggestions and suggestions for China's economic development.
Now that Ho Ching is nearly seventy years old, she has been on The Forbes List of the World's Most Powerful Women many times, and the reason for her listing is not because she is Mrs Lee Hsien Loong, but because she is the head of Temasek.
Some time ago, Singapore elected a fourth generation of leaders, and soon after, Lee Hsien Loong will also retire. The two of them have struggled for Singapore all their lives, and it is time to take a good rest, and then Ho Jing will be able to be Mrs Lee Hsien Loong calmly...
Resources:
CNKI; He Jing: The "First Lady" of the Capital Empire;