Premier of the State Council, People's Republic of China
and
Official Launch of Business China
Special Guest: Business China Patron
Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew
The attendance for this event was segregated into 3 segments - Old Suited Men (industry officials, academics and the like) on the Ground Floor, Tertiary Students on the Second and Ginna (Secondary School and JC kids) on the Third. Given the nature of the speaker and the fact that the event was held during Reading Week, it was no surprise that the bulk of the attendees from the Premier Institution of Social Engineering (NUS) were PRCs (which probably explains why there was no Halal sign on the catering materials).
Rich Men's Corner
Poor Men's Corner
But hey, we got a reception.
Someone suggested to me that, given the disparity between the ground floor and the 2nd floor, the top floor probably got KFC. I tried to find a way of sneaking my way upstairs (to see the composition of the attendees and the food), theorising that those from below could go up but those from above could not go below (a sort of reversal of the pyramid of hierarchy) but didn't bother to contend with the ushers and, thinking out of the box, I went to stand at the side so I could look up (no photos, since that would've been misconstrued as voyeuring due to the gender standing by the railing) and asked the catering staff if what was served upstairs was the same (it was).
Luckily for the linguistically impaired, simultaneous translation headsets were available, since with the exception of half of MM Lee's speech, everything (including Q&A) was in Chinese (though Q&A wasn't translated, sadly and they cheated with Wen's speech, reading from a script).
The event was also graced by the Old Man, and it was very appropriate having he and His Excellency sitting side by side. Yet, although you don't put your life at risk in calling one a despot (your livelihood is another matter), calling the other that is surely perilous, at least in his country.
As part of opening Business China, the MM talked in his speech about Oriental Values (maybe you only hear about "Asian Values" in Chinese these days, since I doubt Chinese-language academics dissect them). There were also the usual platitudes about how China needs internal peace and stability (euphemisms for totalitarianism) in its development. He said that to succeed in China, you need to learn the language, know the culture and know the history. I would venture to suggest that he missed the most important bit: to be willing to play by their rules, and not ours; to succeed in China you must lack manners, be complicit in corruption and vigorously push them back when they push you.
Wen's speech followed. Clearly cognizant of his relative power position, he talked immodestly about how Singapore must learn from a country with a long history and having 1.3 billion people. Naturally, this country was not named. Perhaps he meant India in a few years time. Perhaps to provoke us even more, he talked about how the Suzhou Industrial Park was an example of successful Singapore-China collaboration.
He rambled on and on about China's "opening up", but virtually all of the benefits of "opening up" mentioned were economic. Great stress was placed on the economic needs of the people, with their cultural needs talked about once or twice, thrown in as a sop. Dimensions of "opening up" were mentioned - economic, technological, scientific, cultural and a few others, but a most important one was conspicuous by its omission.
Wen boasted about their huge foreign exchange reserves, at which the audience clapped. While he then went on about the political pressure the country faced due to their size, he said nothing about the arguably more pressing point of the uselessness of having massive unused reserves. Betraying his technocratic background, he started talking and giving numbers about boring things like safety and food standards, making the RMB convertible and intellectual property rights.
When it came to the Questions and Answers, Wong Kan Seng moderated and very astutely, he took 3 questions from the ground floor. He then tried to shoo Wen out by saying he had a busy schedule, no doubt knowing that students always ask the troublesome questions and aware of the venue's historic significance as a site of resistance at the Kent Ridge Ministerial Forum 2 1/2 years back, but to his credit Wen said he should field questions from students.
Although I had bounded to the mic early, I was unfortunately not called upon and in the end 2 PRCs asked their own Premier questions. That in and of itself was only a minor annoyance, despite my well-crafted question (if I do say so myself), but what really pissed me off was how one PRC girl first asked me if I had a question (no, I was standing behind the microphone because I wanted to show off my hair to better advantage) and then asked if I was a student (no, I'm the toilet cleaner). She started waving to Wen while someone else was asking a question. She then had the gall to cut me and tapped and even tried to talk into the mic when Wen was speaking. Demonstrating my inability to succeed in China, I did not push her away or snatch the mic away from her, bt luckily, she was not allowed to speak.
After the 2 questions from other PRCs, Wen remarked that no Singaporean students had asked any questions, and Wong said we needed to “加油” ("jia1 you2" - redouble our efforts). Nonetheless, no effort was made to field a question from a Singaporean and the session was ended. I was tempted to shout into the mic if a Singaporean student could ask a question, but I was not a PRC and thus not that rude.
Finally, my question: China looks at Singapore as a model for how to open up while maintaining political stability. Yet, do you think Singapore has any lessons to learn from China in maintaining political stability? For example, to protect the people from malicious foreign influences and incorrect thoughts you censor the Internet. Would Singapore benefit from more Internet censorship?
News articles about the visit:
Wen Jiabao: China to unswervingly follow opening up policy_English_Xinhua
Chinese premier expounds on China's opening up policy_English_Xinhua
'Massive' foreign reserves put China under pressure: Wen - The China Post