Serious Singapore Chinese - LKY to Deng XP

Lee said to visiting Deng: "We, the Singapore Chinese, were the descendants of landless peasants from Guangdong and Fujian in South China; whereas the scholars, Mandarins and literati had stayed and left their progeny in China. There was nothing that Singapore had done which China could not do, and do better."

Deng was silent. [That was in Singapore during the 1980s.]

Deng did a LKY with his China. The rest is history.

was that the real reason why PRC did a Suzhou Ind. Park to Chan S.S?

I think we are kidding ourselves if we think Deng and China followed the style of Old Man. Take the choice of Suzhou compared to the other cities. Old Man picked it personally because it was the city where the Chinese Intelligentsia had their families, went for holidays and retired after their service as Mandarins and Leaders. In the end the "quality stock" played him out good and proper.

Another example closer to home. The original second generation of leaders - they included 2 PHD academics and 1 medical doctor. One ended up as a womaniser, the second was a religious nut and the third did not cut the mustard. With the help of the compliant press, the original second generation leaders disappeared. Suddenly it was Goh Chok Tong, Tony Tan etc.

Singapore has failed miserably in nearly every attempt to create a Singapore style eco system in industrial parks and business innovation centres in China despite spending a couple of billions and sending scholars over the last 25 years.

OCBC was the first Singapore listed company to start a venture in China in the early 90s and it went pear shape. Lee Hee Seng who was Chairman of OCBC said that it will never venture into China and that our style and systems are very different - lessons learnt. Wee Cho Yaw of UOB cunning as he was spent time and effort slowly building branches and joint ventures in Malaysia and Thailand.

freeways from shanghai to suzhou are peppered with giant billboards, american-style. in fact, tiong engineers relied on american freeway design and not the sinkie system. i used to think only in america do i see giants billboards everywhere by freeways. not anymore, china is now the giant freeway billboard king. the sinkie road system is considered sub-standard by tiongs, not world crass.

who read Deng XP memoir or selected works whatever ? what was his impression of LKY ? it is said according to the works, it is deduced that LKY had a strong influence in Deng's economic policy.

12 November 1978. We were all there. It seem so long ago.

Our greatest worry then was Vietnam (as advised by defeated USA).

We misjudged China for their 'backwardness and need' of our advice. We believed that like the USSR, China will be mired in chaos and will never catch up with powerful USA, the new EU and Japan. The 1976 Tangshan Earthquate with 250,000 dead reassured our think tank that China was in a mess with poverty, natural disasters, corruption, communism, etc will be a burden.

The idea of a Naval Base to control the East-West shipping route by USA will help to mitigate problems from communist Vietnam (and perhaps even weak China). Aaaaaaaaaaah History.

zhihau said:

was that the real reason why PRC did a Suzhou Ind. Park to Chan S.S?

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And the PRCs welcomed Taiwanese businessmen to flock to Suzhou after they screwed the old man over. Irony.

eatshitndie said:

freeways from shanghai to suzhou are peppered with giant billboards, american-style. in fact, tiong engineers relied on american freeway design and not the sinkie system. i used to think only in america do i see giants billboards everywhere by freeways. not anymore, china is now the giant freeway billboard king. the sinkie road system is considered sub-standard by tiongs, not world crass.

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We had that eons ago, i remember vividly the giant Knife brand billboard near Kallang Gas work

wikiphile said:

We had that eons ago, i remember vividly the giant Knife brand billboard near Kallang Gas work

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billboards on highway 101 today are led backlit giant tv's. what happened to billboards in sg?