Introduction

The year 2010 marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Singapore and China. Yet, well before formal ties were established, Singapore and China had extensive interactions as an important part of China's overall relations with Southeast Asia, then known as Nanyang. Furthermore, during the height of Beijing's Cold War relations with Southeast Asia in the 1950s and 1960s, Singapore still maintained economic ties with China while China's ties with other Southeast Asian states had been disrupted or suspended. Today, Singapore-China bilateral ties are broad-based, substantive and rapidly expanding. The achievements today are extraordinary given their past ideological differences.

In several ways, ties between the two countries can be described as special and unique. Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping during his Nanxun in 1992 specifically singled out Singapore's development experience as being useful to China. This set the basis for the two countries to cooperate in various fields and benefit from each other's growth. Other Chinese leaders have also mentioned Singapore from time to time to push relevant reforms in China. Besides the close personal ties between the leaders of the two countries, there is the high-level Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation headed by the Deputy Prime Ministers of the two countries that oversees various forms of bilateral cooperation.

A strong bilateral relationship has thus given rise to strong bilateral economic relations. Singapore's two-way trade with China over the past two decades has increased 30 times, from US$2.9 billion in 1990 to US$75 billion in 2010. China was also Singapore's third-largest trading partner and second-largest source of tourist arrivals in 2011. From China's perspective, Singapore is China's ninth largest trading partner and seventh-largest investor with Singapore's cumulative foreign direct investment (FDI) in China amounting to US$48 billion in 2009.

Singapore's special economic relationship with China can best be epitomized by Singapore's three flagship projects in China: Singapore-Suzhou Industrial Park; Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City; and Knowledge City in Guangzhou.