All eyes on whether new Singapore PM will have baptism of fire with China

When then Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong made an unofficial visit to Taiwan a month before taking up the top job in Singapore in 2004, he unwittingly incurred the wrath of Beijing.

- Tan Dawn Wei

It abruptly called off a trip by then central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan to Singapore, delayed an invitation to a trade delegation to Chengdu led by then National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan, and scrapped a Singapore fair in Shanghai two weeks before it was due to open.

A group of more than 120 Chinese mayors and officials also cancelled a routine training programme in the island-state, while foreign ministry spokespeople railed against Singapore for "hurting China's core interest, the political base between the two countries and the feelings of 1.3 billion Chinese people".

That diplomatic incident was widely seen as China seizing the opportunity to test the incoming prime minister, who was taking over after 14 years of the Goh Chok Tong administration.

When Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong takes the reins from PM Lee on May 15, political pundits will be watching to see if he might have his own baptismof-fire moment with the Chinese leadership.

Ties between the two countries are at their best since another diplomatic row in 2016 over the South China Sea and Singapore's military training in Taiwan.

Nine army vehicles en route home from Taiwan were impounded in Hong Kong in November that year and held for two months.

Relations eventually thawed and strengthened, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, when Singapore was quick to send medical supplies to China, which later also donated masks to the Republic.

Singapore remains China's bigChina gest foreign investor, a record held since 2013, while China is Singapore's biggest trading partner.

In March 2023, as reopened its borders following the pandemic, PM Lee seized the opportunity for a visit, meeting President Xi Jinping and letting the Chinese leadership know that DPM Wong would be his successor. The two leaders also upgraded bilateral ties to a partnership that has been described as "all round", "high quality" and "future-oriented".