China starting to show displeasure with Singapore

Global Times, the unofficial spokeman of China, has published articles that criticized Singapore’s cosying up with the Americans and the lavish dinner that Obama hosted for Hsien Loong as a statement of Singapore’s support for the Americans particularly over the South China dispute. Singapore’s overt support of the American position is never in doubt by the numerous articles published in the local media and with comments from Singapore officials that irked China. And Hsien Loong’s comments at the White House dinner put squarely where Singapore stood in the dispute between China and the US.
 
The Global Times did acknowledge the difficult position of Singapore in a region that is not too friendly and could turn hostile to Singapore and Singapore’s interests and the need to play the American card. The military might of the Americans is sorely needed should the neighbours attempt to squeeze Singapore to put Singapore in its rightful place. China appreciates that but when Singapore leaned too close to the Americans and even overtly took positions that are explicitly anti China, it forces China’s hand.
 
The Global Times reminded Singapore that it could play a balancing role like in the past by being as neutral as possible. When Singapore started to take sides against China, Singapore would lose this value and strategic role as a balancer between the two superpowers. LKY was able to do what he did because of his ability to respect the interests of the two superpowers without being hostile to anyone. China opened its doors to LKY, giving him special access to China’s top leaders. LKY could share his understanding of Chinese leader’s thinking with the Americans and could advise the Americans because of this special privilege built over years of trust and confidence building.
 
When this trust is lost, when China perceived that Singapore is no longer trustworthy, but in the American camp, the door will be closed. Hsien Loong or other Singapore leaders will find themselves waiting outside the corridors of Chinese leaders taking cue numbers and waiting to be invited for an audience that would not come. When that day comes, Singapore would lose its usefulness to China and also to the Americans other than being a close military ally like the South Koreans, Japanese, the Philippines and the Vietnamese. The consequences of being relegated to a staunch American ally in the American pivot to Asia would not be in the long term interest of Singapore. Many doors would be closed and many economic deals would be left hanging in the air. The Chinese market would no longer be there, to be easily accessible.
 
This seems to be the warning coming out from the Global Times. Respect China’s interests and continue to play a strategic balancing role between the two super powers or be sidelined.
 
The warning to Singapore has been sounded. Whither Sino Singapore relations going forward are now in the hands of Singapore leaders. Would Singapore's media and officials continue to call China's friends as Trojan Horses in public forum to show where Singapore stood in the US China rivalry?

$150k pay check – Should feel sorry for him or not?

Cynical Investor wrote a piece appearing in the TRE quoting Gilbert’s post of an unemployed Singapore talent. Here is the quote:

‘Someone wrote to Gilbert Goh saying that he lost his 150k a year job to a FT prepared to accept 40% less. Losing my job was brutal for me financially since I am paying for 2 properties and a car.

I also have a S$100K unsecured loan debt which I took on to pay the deposit for my second home. My wife isn’t working and I have school going children. The first thing I did was to adjust my salary expectations up to 50%. Within 1 week I have applied to almost 500 jobs but none of them successful or called for an interview’.

Cynical Investor was asking whether we should feel sorry for him. Many in TRE were asking who did he vote for in the GE. Who do you think such successful, highly paid Singaporeans would vote for? Given their high income, good jobs, good pays, landed properties, cars, my guess is that they must be very comfortable with the system and would not want to have any change. To them the govt have done a marvelous job and giving them a Swiss standard lf living.

No need to ask or guess who they voted in the last GE. And many would continue to vote the same way until they hit a hard wall like this guy and came crawling to Gilbert to vent their frustration and desperation. But what can Gilbert do other than to lend them a listening year?

The few places they could hope to be helped in the job banks started by MOM or to go to NTUC for more skills upgrading so that they can become a waiter or something like that and be very grateful for being helped.

I bet many of these high earners would sneer and shrug it off as one bad luck case as they go about getting their fat pay, until they ended up in the same shit. Life is too good for the high earners that they would not think that this kind of things could happen to them.  Not to worry, it would be someone else, never ‘Me’.

How many PMETs must be grounded, driven to despair before the walking dead wake up and say no more? How, big earners, would you be next to write to Gilbert? For everyone that went crying to Gilbert there could be 10 that resigned to their fate, remaining jobless or underemployed. There would also be another 10 or 20 going to attend skills upgrading courses conducted by NTUC so that they could get a new job paying 10 or 20% of what they used to get.

Mind you, this is the career path for many high earning Singaporeans. It is only a matter of when will be their turn. 不见棺材不流泪

The 51st state of the USA?

The state visit by Hsien Loong to the USA and the warm reception given to him and his entourage is unbelieveable for a small state. The US put on a charm offensive to show how important and how close Singapore is to the Americans. Obama gave everything he got, no holds bar, to impress Hsien Loong and Singaporeans and the world that this is how being good to the USA would be rewarded.
 
From another perspective it was like a suitor putting on his best to win the heart of his bride to be, a proposal for a marriage. Was Obama wooing Singapore into the final embrace of the USA? Singapore is very important to the Americans in many ways and has been responding very positively to all the overtures put up by the Americans, a sign that things can be better. Just ask and Singapore will go along, like a willing lass very happy to be charmed and taken for a ride in a courtship.
 
The days when Singapore played hard to get, played tough, are over. Today the relationship has blossomed and a wedding is on the card, if the Americans are serious wanting the relationship to move to a higher level. And the bride will come with all the strategic assets that the Americans would love to have, better than the strategic location of Israel in the Middle East. Singapore is in the heart of SE Asia and a very important point in Asia. The pivot to Asia would not be complete without Singapore, cannot be effective without Singapore.
 
Now, did he propose? Did Obama make his move during this state visit, to ask for the hand of Singapore, as the 51st state of the United States of America? Did he swipe the feet of the bride off the ground? And did she said yes?
 
It is not a bad idea that Singapore becomes the 51st state of the USA. And we would become the most powerful nation in the world, or a part of the most powerful nation in the world. And we will have a new flag and a new national anthem to sing and have a lot of things to be proud of, a lot of things to celebrate like all the gold medals in the Olympics and Fourth of July.
 
Singapore the 51st state of the USA? Possible, good? What do you think?

What is the WP going to do with the AGO reports?

The AHPETC story has not ended and will never end for the next 100 years. This is called tenacity, to keep repeating a wrong, to keep it alive and to keep reminding the people of the wrong. It is politics of little Red Dot.
 
The WP must be groaning in pain. Their strategy of not rubbing it in when they had a chance, or many chances, but to play ball, to play good boy, has boomeranged. The PAP is not going to appreciate that and in the case of the AHPETC, they are going to screw the knife deeper into the bones, to make it stick for good. What else or when would the PAP be able to find another opportunity to screw the WP real hard?
 
The AGO reports have highlighted many flaws and mismanagement or bad governance. Would the WP decide to return PAP the favour, dig in, be just as tenacious, bite as hard and refuses to let go, like the AHPETC case. To do so they would need a dedicated team to dwell into the nitty gritty of the cases highlighted, turn over every stone to expose the dirt, like the AHPETC case. Or would they continue to play ball, say one time ok leow, be nice, no need to rub it in, no need to rub so hard.  Whatever happened happens, let’s move on?
 
Or maybe the problems raised by the AGO were nothing compared to the AHPETC so there is no comparison and nothing much to talk about. Back to sweep the streets and make sure the estate is clean, go and take care of municipal issues, and to make sure no more AHPETC problems to be aired like dirty laundry again?
 
What is the battle plan and strategies of the WP? More of the same? Don’t rock the boat, no need to harp on an issue and things will be fine? Or will the young turks in WP want to stand up and fight and fight tenaciously like the PAP?

China must never go through the trauma of American and Japanese aggression again

                                   China must never go through the trauma of Western and Japanese aggression again

China must never go through the trauma of foreign aggression again. USA in trying to maintain its number one world super power status insists on containing China from peaceful development. The whole American administration is infested with insane, mad and crazy crooks, rogues and scoundrels and warmongers who can't accept the rise of other countries. They are intent on pinning Russia and China down and to eventually destroy the two countries.This is because they  know that Russia and China are the only two countries capable of stopping USA from carrying on its evil heinous acts and prevent it from exercising  global domination and hegemony. If USA pushes China too much to the wall, China will fight back A war with China now will become the nemesis of the Evil Empire , USA. China must continually build up its military and economy from strength to strength to resist American and Japanese aggression and to stop their travesty of justice.

Below I quote an excerpt from an article by a prominent writer and peace advocate :.     ANDRE   VITCHEK

         SOUTH  CHINA  SEA  :  WATCH  OUT  :  DRAGON  COULD  BITE

"China is fuming. It has obviously had enough, it is reaching the limit. For decades it tried to appease the West, to play by international laws, to be a good and responsible member of the international community. And for decades it never interfered in the internal affairs of other countries, it sponsored no coups and attacked no foreign lands.
Even its counter-propaganda has been measured, polite and mild.
All this has gained China no admiration, not even respect!
It is being constantly antagonized, provoked and encircled both militarily and ideologically. Not far from its territory are deadly US military bases (Futenma and Kadena) located on Okinawa, there are enormous bases on the Korean Peninsula and increasing US military presence in Southeast Asia, particularly in the Philippines. There are constant exercises and naval maneuvers near its shores and just recently, a decision by South Korea (ROK), to allow the US to deploy an advanced missile defense system (THAAD) in Seongju County.
In Nagasaki, my friend, an Australian historian Geoffrey Gunn commented on the situation:
“Well, the fact of the matter is that China is indignant at this encirclement. China is indignant that Washington backs Japan, that Washington is ready to support Japan’s non-negotiation policy over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands. So we see, in this situation, a clearly indignant China, and Japan that is taking a basically aggressive position in relation to so-called territorial integrity. So Pacific Asia is increasingly becoming more belligerent, more conflict-prone East Asia.”
The propaganda against China in both Europe and North America is reaching a crescendo. The more socialist (Chinese way) it is once again becoming, and the closer its ties with Russia become, the more powerful the ideological attacks are from Western governments and mainstream media.
The latest decision (over the South China Sea dispute) of the ‘kangaroo’ arbitration court in The Hague appears to be the last drop.
The Chinese Dragon has risen in anger. Tired of receiving punches, mighty and strong, it has sent a strong message to the West: China is an enormous and peaceful country. But if threatened, if attacked, this time the country will be firm and determined. It will defend itself and its interests.....

To antagonize China is not only wrong; it is dangerous and shortsighted. Beijing has been backing up and compromising too long, for many decades. It will not any longer. Chinese people demand fairness. The Philippines should realize that the West is using their country as a proxy, for its imperialist goals.
To involve Western courts in internal Asian disputes, as is being done by the Philippines, will only aggravate the situation. To shoot at Chinese fishing vessels in the disputed waters (as was recently done by the Indonesian navy) can only escalate tensions (Indonesia already has a horrid historic track record in relation to China – banning the Chinese language, culture and even names, for decades, after the bloody Western-backed coup of 1965).
For the time being, China will be applying a ‘wait and see’ strategy. Once again, it will use its diplomacy, re-launching bilateral negotiations with the Philippines, Vietnam and other countries.
But if the West refuses to back up, and if some of the Southeast Asian countries continue to act as proxies for the West, Beijing would most likely use one of the tougher options. One would be setting up an air defense identification zone over the South China Sea. Another would be direct military escalation – greater naval and air force presence in the area.
And what is the position of the world? No matter what the Western propaganda is trumpeting, only a handful countries, mainly the US and its closest allies (5 at the time this essay is being written), have publicly supported the Philippines and the Ruling coming from The Hague. Over 70 nations support China and its belief that disputes should be resolved through negotiations and not arbitration. The rest of the world has remained ‘neutral’."


Southernglory1

Friday, 05-08-2016