This Monday, Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong went to the presidential palace and submitted his resignation to President Tharman Shanmugaratnam, which also means that Lee Hsien Loong's Singapore era has officially come to an end! Prime Minister-designate Lawrence Wong will take over the mantle from Lee Hsien Loong on Wednesday, and Singapore will usher in the Ong era of Lawrence Wong. Although Singapore is not a large country with a small population and a small land area, as the only developed country in Southeast Asia, and because it controls the Strait of Malacca, a sea chokepoint, Singapore's high-level adjustment has attracted a lot of attention. For us, the most concerned may be how Singapore under the leadership of Huang Xuncai will make choices in the fierce Sino-US game.
In fact, Huang Xuncai has already expressed his position on this issue before. In an interview with the British media, Huang Xuncai said that Singapore will not choose sides between China and the United States, but will proceed from Singapore's own interests to deal with China and the United States. This means that Singapore will neither be "pro-China" nor "pro-US", but will maintain a balanced strategy. Wong's stance is in the same vein as Lee Hsien Loong's policy toward China and the United States. Indeed, judging from the actual situation, "not taking sides between China and the United States" is a choice that is most in line with Singapore's own interests, because whether it is "pro-China" or "pro-US", Singapore faces the risk of offending the other side, and China and the United States have a great influence on Singapore, and Singapore cannot afford to offend any of them.
For Singapore, China has a deep historical relationship with it, and at the same time there are close economic and trade exchanges with China. Even if you don't know much about Singapore, when you see that Lee Hsien Loong can speak fluent Chinese, you can probably know that the relationship between Singapore and China is not ordinary. This unusual historical relationship gives China and Singapore a natural sense of closeness, and on this alone, it is unlikely that Singapore will fully turn to the United States to help the United States counter China. What's more, China and Singapore have close economic and trade exchanges, and if China-Singapore relations are not stable, the economic and trade exchanges between the two countries will inevitably be impacted, and Singapore's economy will naturally be disturbed. Based on these two points, no matter who takes charge of Singapore, there will be no major adjustment in China's policy.
As for the United States, Singapore has been moving closer to the United States in terms of values, and in terms of defense, Singapore and the United States have established a deep cooperative relationship. At present, the main weapons and equipment of the Singapore armed forces in active service are purchased from the United States, and every year Singapore and the United States hold various forms of military exchanges or joint military exercises. In the context of the U.S. launching the "Indo-Pacific Strategy" and refocusing its strategic focus on the Indo-Pacific region, the U.S. is paying more and more attention to its relations with allies such as Singapore, and in this case, Singapore will definitely strengthen its relationship with the United States. It is not difficult to see that for Singapore, both China and the United States are very important, and there can be no situation of who is close to and who is alienated.
However, there is one point, as the game between China and the United States becomes more and more fierce and the confrontation escalates, the United States will definitely increase its efforts in the future to persuade and even coerce allies like Singapore to join the camp of containing China. At that time, it is still unknown whether Huang Xuncai will be able to withstand the tremendous pressure exerted by the United States and stick to the balanced diplomatic strategy, and China will always pay close attention to the changes in Singapore's foreign policy.