From Third World to First The Singapore Story pdfdrive com

Party, right or wrong to want to liberate Singapore?” He replied, “It is for the
people of Singapore to choose their own social system and their own form of
government.” I asked, “Then am I right that China will not support the liberation
of Singapore by the Malayan Communist Party, because such a liberation should
be by the people of Singapore, not the people of Malaysia?” He looked puzzled
because he did not know that the Malayan Communist Party wanted to liberate
both Malaya and Singapore.
At this stage Qiao Guanhua scribbled furiously and passed him a note. Like
the tough security chief he was, he ostentatiously pushed aside the note without
reading it, and said he did not know what the situation was; but wherever
communist parties fought for liberation, they were bound to win because that
was the tide of history.
I explained that the MCP claimed to be the communist party to liberate both
peninsular Malaya and Singapore. So it would be useful at some stage for the
PRC to make its position plain, that government-to-government relations with
Singapore would be correct; however, any party-to-party relations should be

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between the Chinese Communist Party and a communist party of Singapore that
sought to liberate Singapore, not a party of Malaysia or Malaya like the MCP.
Hua repeated that it was not possible for a foreign power to impose a
socialist system on another country, if that was what I feared. I pressed him to
clarify China’s stand on principle that it was wrong for a Malayan communist
party to liberate people in Singapore. He fudged, saying he had not studied the
matter. I repeated my question but he still refused to clarify his position.
Instead he went on the offensive, raising the main purpose of the meeting,
Singapore’s military links with Taiwan. He began softly, that there existed long-
term traditional friendship between the peoples of China and Singapore, a
“kinsman-like relationship” between the Chinese people and the people of
Chinese descent in Singapore. He hoped relations would further improve after
my visit. Then he became stern and in a serious tone said we had developed a
“military relationship” with the “Chiang clique from Taiwan”. This was in
contravention of the one China position of the Singapore government and not
beneficial to the development of relations.
I refused to be defensive. Yes, Singapore recognised that there was one
China and that Taiwan and the mainland were one country. However, for the
time being the Nationalist government that retreated from the mainland was in
charge of Taiwan. I had to deal with the 
de facto
authority in Taiwan. If the PRC
were in physical charge of Taiwan I would have approached the PRC for
training facilities. Singapore must have the ability to defend itself. Because of
our limitations of air, sea and land space, we have had to do our training in
Thailand, Australia and New Zealand. Before starting full-scale training in
Taiwan in 1975, our foreign minister, Rajaratnam, had informed their foreign
minister, Qiao Guanhua, that this move did not in any way reflect a change in
our position of recognising one China. Qiao Guanhua had not responded to Raja.
Hua Guofeng concluded by stating that given the different social systems of
the two countries, important differences existed. These did not matter, because
both sides had found many common points through a frank exchange of views.
Hua had pressed me as far as he could.
I said the front page publicity in the 
People’s Daily
of my meeting with
Chairman Mao would not be received with joy in Southeast Asia. It was better
for China not to send a trade mission to Singapore until our neighbours’
suspicions from this publicity had subsided. The more China embraced us as
“kinsman country” the greater would be our neighbours’ suspicions. It was
difficult because Singapore’s neighbours had significant Chinese minorities who

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played a disproportionate role in the economy and their economic success had
aroused the jealousy and resentment of the indigenous peoples. Where they were
of different religions, there was little intermarriage as with the Muslims in
Malaysia and Indonesia. This was a never-ending problem that China had to take
into account. It was an important underlying factor in the relationship between
China and the other countries in Southeast Asia.
Hua said he had already made it very clear that “the Chinese government
recognises and respects the independence and sovereignty of Singapore”.
China’s policy towards the people of Chinese descent living abroad was clear. It
did not approve of dual nationality. It encouraged these people to take the
nationality of their country of residence of their own volition. All those who did
so would automatically lose their Chinese citizenship. He was happy that the
overwhelming majority of people of Chinese descent in Singapore had already
become citizens, and together with peoples of other nationalities (meaning
“races”), were building up their own country. The traditional friendship and
“kinsman-like” relationship between the peoples of Singapore and China were
beneficial to the development of relations. His turgid, clichéd rhetoric jarred.
Raja thought he lacked the sophistication and subtlety of Zhou Enlai, who, Raja
believed, would have handled the discussions differently and without communist
jargon. I was disappointed that the leader of such a huge country looked tough
and strong but lacked finesse. He merely trotted out the standard party line when
dealing with questions of race and kinship, and indulged in sophistry
differentiating government-to-government from party-to-party relations to justify
China’s interference in our internal affairs. And he would not admit the
contradiction between his theory that liberation must come from within and
China’s material and propaganda support for the Communist Party of Malaya to
liberate Singapore by force. Qiao Guanhua and his foreign ministry officials
familiar with Southeast Asia were uncomfortable as they watched their premier
trying to browbeat, without success, the Singapore ministers.
In my return banquet speech two nights later, I emphasised, “China and
Singapore agreed that they should conduct their bilateral relations by
concentrating on those matters on which there is agreement and not those on
which we have different views because of different basic assumptions. …
Premier Hua says that being a socialist country, China supports the revolutionary
struggle of all countries. But Premier Hua also states that China does not
interfere in the internal matters of other countries, and that how the Singapore
government deals with its communists is a matter for the Singapore government

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to decide. Based on this non-interference, I believe that we can develop our
relations.” This public statement was to reinforce my hand against the
communist united front elements in Singapore.
That night after dinner, Premier Hua Guofeng drove with me in the Red Flag
car from the guesthouse in Diaoyutai to Beijing Central Railway Station. It was a
ceremonial send-off with thousands of schoolchildren waving coloured paper
flowers and chanting their farewell. They put me and the whole delegation,
together with all the security, protocol and baggage officers, on a special train
for our provincial tour to the west.
The train left Beijing at 10:15 pm. In my carriage was a bathtub, the largest I
had ever seen. I wondered why anyone would want a bathtub instead of a shower
in a railway carriage that jolted and shook. Perhaps it had been fitted out for
Chairman Mao. We woke up in Yangchuan in Shaanxi province. After breakfast
on the train, we were driven along a winding uphill road to Dazhai. There we
were briefed by the revolutionary committee who had much experience in
receiving VIP visitors. We listened to a well-practised recitation of how
revolutionary fervour conquered all. We slept overnight on the train and woke
up at Xian to see the recent discoveries of the tomb of Emperor Qin Shihuang.
They had just begun excavating the terracotta warriors there.
Later, at a welcoming dinner given by the Shaanxi provincial revolutionary
committee, we listened to the first of many speeches that followed Hua
Guofeng’s line in denouncing the “capitalist roader”, someone who had sneaked
into the Communist Party and was striving to restore capitalism. I had read that
Deng Xiaoping had been removed from his position as second in command of
the government and condemned as a “capitalist roader”. When I first heard Hua
use this term, I paid little attention, but from its constant repetition at every place
we visited, I concluded that this must be a serious matter; this man who
remained unnamed had to be an important person if he needed to be condemned
again and again.
The next morning we left for Yenan, the legendary base of the Eighth Route
Army, and the loess cave which had been Mao’s study. At the museum of
memorabilia, the guide, a young woman, spoke like a zealous evangelist. She
referred to Mao with religious fervour as if he was God and Zhou Enlai and the
other immortals of the Long March his archangels. A small white horse had been
stuffed and put into a glass case because Zhou Enlai had ridden on it for part of
the Long March. The guide’s recitation was so oppressive that both Choo and
Ling wandered off, leaving me to show interest and make polite responses.

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We stayed the night at Yangchialing, the biggest town near Yenan. Again we
heard the compulsory denunciation of the “capitalist roader” by the prefectural
revolutionary committee chairman. We flew back to Xian and stayed in the
spacious guesthouse complex where I was given a suite with an enormous
bathroom and dressing room. They said it had been specially built for Chairman
Mao. These plush guesthouses were perks for provincial and Beijing leaders.
We flew to Shanghai, to be greeted once more by dancing schoolgirls in gay-
coloured clothes carrying paper flags and flowers. At dinner the chairman of the
Shanghai municipal revolutionary committee, a young man, denounced the
“capitalist roader” with some vehemence and passion. We learnt that Shanghai
was the most leftist of all the cities and provinces and the base of the radicals
around Mao’s wife, Jiang Qing, and the Gang of Four who were to be arrested
and imprisoned soon after Mao died.
Towards the end of our provincial tour, some fraternisation took place
between their officials and members of my party who could speak Mandarin.
They bantered as they helped each other to the dishes at dinner, saying
ironically, “