MM Lee lectures Americans on the “Chinese mindset”
October 24th, 2009 | 
Author: From our Correspondent
Singapore’s “wise” old man and self-acclaimed “expert” on China, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew has dished out his customary “understanding” of China to the Americans again, this time on the Charlie Rose show.
On the National Talk show, MM Lee implored the United States to gain an understanding of the “Chinese mindset”.
“Look, they don’t want to be an honorary member of the West, unlike Russia. They’re quite happy to be Chinese and to remain as such…So when you tell them you ought to do this, you ought to do that, they say yes, thank you. But at the back of their minds, (they ask) ‘We’ve lasted 5,000 years, have you?” said Lee.
Since relinquishing his position as prime minister in 1990, Lee had tried to portray himself as an international statesman and bridge between the West and China.
He recounted (brimming with pride) former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping’s visit to Singapore in 1978 which left an indelible impression on him and insinuated that it helped spurred him to liberalize the Chinese economy.
Lee’s frequent boasts about China “learning” from Singapore has brought sharp rebuttals and criticisms from others in the Chinese-speaking world.
One famous Hong Kong commentator remarked that the Chinese leaders are only exercising due courtesy to Lee and the only thing China ever wants to learn from Singapore is its unique one-party system of government.
Though Lee was an ethnic Chinese, he was English-educated and was unable to speak Mandarin fluently till he became Singapore’s prime minister.
Before the PAP won power, he had to rely heavily on his Chinese-educated colleague Lim Chin Siong to win over the Chinese masses.
Lee was staunchly anti-communist and anti-China in the 1960s. Fearful of the lingering influence and strength of the Chinese elites, he abolished vernacular education and introduced English as the medium of education for all schools in Singapore.
Singapore’s only Chinese university, Nan Tah, was merged with the University of Singapore to form the National University of Singapore in 1980.
With the rise of China in 1980s, Lee made a stunning U-turn and embraced his former foes – the Chinese communists.
Despite his frequent claims that he has “in-depth” knowledge and understanding of China, his first major foray in China ended in disaster.
The Suzhou-Singapore industrial park was a brain-child of Lee to replicate a Singapore-style technological park in the city of Suzhou. However, it failed to take off due to lack of support from the local officials which clearly exposed Lee’s shallow understanding of the Chinese culture and mindset.
Singapore eventually left the management of the park to the Chinese in 1999 with losses amounting to an estimated USD $90 million dollars. Till today, the losses are still unaccounted for. Ironically the park became profitable a year after the Singapore consortium left.
Lee’s continued infatuation with China is reflected in many of Singapore’s policies including its liberal immigration policy which has come under fire in recent weeks.
Concerned about the impact of the declining birth rate on Singapore’s racial balance, Singapore embarked on an ambitious program in the early 2000s to increase the population via immigration with a substantial proportion of the new migrants coming from China.
The case of Zhang Yuanyuan highlights the relative ease of which mainland Chinese can obtain PR and citizenship in Singapore.
Ms Zhang came to Singapore on a student’s pass in 2003 armed with only a diploma from an unknown Chinese high school. She became a PR within 2 months of application. Ms Zhang found work as a Chinese language teacher in Singapore which is hardly considered a qualified professional.
The insidious “sinicization” of Singapore has caused widespread resentment and unhappiness on the ground even amongst the local Chinese who are culturally and linguistically different from their counterparts in China.
With China becoming an economic powerhouse, Singapore will only grow more and more reliant on China instead of the other way round.
At current rate the mainland Chinese are swarming over Singapore, it is only a matter of time before Singapore is relegated to become a second or even third tier city of China.
Posted in Editorial
“Singapore embarked on an ambitious program in the early 2000s to increase the population via immigration with a substantial proportion of the new migrants coming from China.”
Actually I think the whole encourage foreigners to come to Singapore thing dates back even further to the 1990s or even 1980s.
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….”So when you tell them you ought to do this, you ought to do that, they say yes, thank you. But at the back of their minds, (they ask) ‘We’ve lasted 5,000 years, have you?” ….”
DISAGREED. I believe many businessmen and corporate executive out in the real world have DIFFERENT IDEAS. Why?
The analogy is starkly obvious. My analogy is Great Wall of China is iconic history no less than the Egyptian pyramids BUT BUSINESS WORLD ARE MORE LIKELY TO VIEW THOSE AS BARBARIC RELICS of cultural relevance and NO relevance to economic development value (other than tourism income) or prediction of economic vibrancy or nimbleness of possible success.
The real world and those in the audience can see Europe, and particularly the US as the forefront of technology and China has a long way to catch up DESPITE 5000 years of history. The 5000 years is more likely to be seen by them as 5000 years of barbaric history of feudal wars and nepotism, internal division, dislocated fractures, and even colonialism slavery abuse with little progress to show until the last 20 years and even then provide ONLY cheap labour input to western technology and manufacturing facilities. If 5000 years of history is such wonder – IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE OTHER WAY AROUND – China provide the technology and the western society providing the slave cheap labour! America has less much shorter history but put men on the moon more than 3 decades ago and Chinese till now not yet put a monkey into lunar orbit. Americans put spacecraft on Mars, the Chinese could only admire and maybe envy.
In the business world, both American and Chinese businessmen and CEOs know the Chinese side danced very hard to clinch (unsuccessfully) access to western technology with clauses of leniency for copyright violation. Read this comment from people in the practical world has to say ABOUT THE REAL WORLD.
…………..”Chinese companies want leading-edge technology and equipment but also want the foreign owners to be more flexible with their intellectual copyright, since Chinese are quick to learn,” Beijing Mining Equity Exchange manager Wang Hui said.
“Well, very often, such demand hinders the transactions.
“For instance, I’ve participated in negotiation between American and Chinese companies. The Americans have technology with better efficiency and environment protection but the deal still failed at the last hurdle,”…..”
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,28124,26238225-643,00.html
China also refused entry for foreign companies to prospecting for minerals inside China BUT ITSELF INVESTING BILLIONS AND BILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN OTHER DISCOVERED DEPOSITS GLOBALLY.
The price for entry of foreign mining business is -TECHNOLOGY.
Canadian Ambassador David Mulroney, whose country together with Australia has the world’s best mining technology, echoed similar sentiments.
Australian and Canadian mining industries are using cutting edge 3-D seismic survey for oil exploration, magnetic and gravity anomaly surveys for finding buried concealed mineral deposits and the Chinese still use the “boot on the ground” geophysical and geochemical detection technniques to hunt for mineral deposits.
People in the business world (even the Chinese business people and negotiators themselves ) DON’T believe in this 5,000 year history hype of Chinese people – it has LOT more relevance of political rhetorics than ZERO business and practical competitive relevance in economic development and advancement.
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And more recently, MM Lee is trying to milk the media limelight by meeting with Obama. This, from a man who not too long ago dismissed the President of the United States as a ‘flash in the pan’. He’s courting the Chinese too heavily, and the Chinese are only too pleased. He needs to exercise a little realism in his relations. We may have a majority of Chinese, but China does not see us as a close ally.
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1980s? where got so late. no lah. started in 1960s when they begin to send in N.Z. grass because it was greener.
http://www.unescap.org/drpad/vc/conference/bg_sg_17_vfp.htm
That first stab was a disaster but eventually they learn. just like the amt spent by DSTA on foreign talent only end up one even have to drive taxi for a living.
Look at the surrounding now, spend so much to deforest and then make the area into park but all fully grown, imported horticulture. nothing native except maybe the few users. no doubt these native users will be fixed eventually (sic – batam, penang or johor) so that new users can integrate with these imported horticulture.
Also look on the brite side, when we say welcome to Singapore, we really do.
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“Look, they don’t want to be an honorary member of the West, unlike Russia. They’re quite happy to be Chinese and to remain as such…So when you tell them you ought to do this, you ought to do that, they say yes, thank you. But at the back of their minds, (they ask) ‘We’ve lasted 5,000 years, have you?” said Lee.
Brilliant. Revealed is the mindset of staying intact, in power for as long as possible. Never mind if over 90% of the useful concepts and contraceptions in use right now are not invented by the Chinese who lasted 5000 years but the modern western world’s history of around 300 years.
Just brilliant!
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“The insidious “sinicization” of Singapore has caused widespread resentment and unhappiness on the ground even amongst the local Chinese who are culturally and linguistically different from their counterparts in China.”
True. Local Chinese have been “malay”ed and “indian”ized. They eat prata and nasi lemak in the morning.
Chinaman and Chinadoll will just swallow anything including drinking baby soup.
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LKY is an ethnic Chinese? i thought he is baba?
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Lee Kuan Yew ” ate more salt than you ate rice” is an old Chinese saying for people that criticize older and wiser persons. Mr. Lee is NOT wrong about Chinese leaders, they accept criticism politely,but continued to do what they think is right for China. For example, they acknowledge that the yuan is under valued, but they will not allow it to float because they will not allow speculators to come in and dissablize the yuan which will put the Chinese economy on a roller-coaster course. That was exactly what happened to Japan in the 1980’s. But China do need advance and new technolgy, if the US refused to sell China these new tecnology, and if China has to steal them. You know the result.
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@ Ben Gee on Sat, 24th Oct 2009 9:26 pm I think there is a price to pay for non-convertibility of Yuan to US dollar. How does Chinese corporate hedge their interest rate swaps on foreign borrowing while corporate borrowers outside China can benefit from capital market efficiency?
With Chinese business investing globally in billions and exchange rate volatility, wouldn’t the Chinese want to lock in the exchange rate risks when the payback on these investment may be highly uncertain and contigent on exchange rate movements?
So I don’t think it is wise decision for China to retain its non-convertibility for ever. It may be adverse retardation for the development of Chinese business ventures abroad.
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It’s a joke, LKY must have failed his high school history lessons. China has 5000 years history? The first writing system appeared earliest in 1600 BC Shang Dynasty and the appearance of writing system signals the start of a civilization. We can only say China has at most 3600 years of history. Even the earliest civilization in the world, the Sumerian, has only 4000 years history. Revise your history, get the facts right, LKY!
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@anewbie
LKY is correct. If you include the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors (2852 BC to 2205 BC) and the Xia Dynasty 2100–1600 BC, its 4861 years of history.
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@thomas
Those are myths, not history. History need to be backed by records in writing. The myths are mostly stories like how a goddess made human from soil, how someone discovered fire, a king chose a talent but not his son to be his successor, a hero controlled the flood, etc. Historical scholars do not consider the start of china history to be myths.
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