The real story behind China's learning experience in Singapore

  Deng Xiaoping opened up China to the world, to learn from the world, to build a new industrial and prosperous China for its people. It was so simple on paper. Just a simple idea, like a poor man wanting to be rich, learn, work hard, and climb the social ladder.

The implementation of this simple idea is anything but simple, The assumptions and thinking behind this idea, the planning, execution, the political will to make it happen and many things that are not noticed, are all part and parcel to turn this idea into a new economic and technological miracle. China sent many teams of administrators from cities and towns to Singapore to learn from Singapore. They don't learn just the methodology, but the systems of administration, the legal systems, the ethos and work ethics of administrating new economic zones, everything that needs to make it a success.

China also learn all the supporting structures and manpower to turn cities and towns into little Singapore, operating efficiently like Singapore. They embarked on education on a massive scale, to become STEM engineers, not religious leaders. The transformation of China into an economic giant is not just superficial learning, come to Singapore, look see, look see, go back and be happy. There was the accompanying political will to make sure what they learnt are turned into successful projects. They put their very best men on the job, not masak masak. Learning is only a part of the whole process. The execution to make things work as they should be is the tedious part.

What people did not know or want to know is that China apply the rule by law to all its business contracts and investments, especially in all the special economic zones. They followed rules and systems. China invited a lot of foreign investors and whatever was agreed upon, China and Chinese companies will abide by all the contractual terms and agreements. No sneaky and blatant violation of contracts, no changes to cheat the investors, no abuse of laws or legislations to cheat and rob foreign investors. Whatever contracts the Chinese signed, they signed with eyes open, will be followed through, unlike some third world countries that will turn around and say contract not valid, let's renegotiate, or change the terms of the contracts or came out with dubious and suspicious laws to violate the contracts, to cheat and rob the investors, to seize the assets of investors.

China makes sure that it is a reliable and trustworthy partner when dealing with foreign investors. Trust is of utmost importance. The words of China and Chinese companies are as good as gold. No funny changes, no sanctions, no bans, no fabricated charges or violations of fictitious laws. China will honour all its contractual agreements. No foreign investor has been cheated by China investing in China.

Trust and honour are the name cards of China's economic success. This cannot be learnt by corrupt and simple minded third world countries when they chose the short cut to cheat and to rob foreign investors. It is not easy to learn to be honest and trustworthy when cheating is a way of life and thinking they are so clever.

Easy for poor countries to multiply, difficult for rich countries to do so

When population increased and job opportunities were not there, the Singapore Government even drafted draconian measures with its 'stop at two' mantra. I believe punishment was also mandatory, such as priority for school registration for example. Later, the mantra was changed to tell people to have more children if they can afford to, meaning the rich can have more children, but not the poor. Now, the Singapore Government is throwing incentives for people to have more children, mostly favoring the rich like tax incentives, but such calls have fallen on deaf ears.

China did the same with its one child policy when it was in its poverty- stricken years, which has been demolished as well, yet population growth has not expanded again as expected. The more progress in economic terms a country has reached, the more difficult it is to get people to marry and have children. It is a global issue.

I do not believe India can do that if it were to take a leaf from what Singapore did to curb its population growth. The poorer a country is, the more difficult it is to curb population growth. It is a rather unique feature of human nature.

Anonymous

China took nearly a thousand years to build the Great Wall...another thousand years to build a new world

China built the Great Wall over many centuries. Imagine building the Great Wall of China from 680 BC till 1681 AD, more than 2,300 years in all, one dynasty after another. What does this show about China's patience and perseverance? What does this show about the kind of scale that the Chinese are good at building?

China is now building the biggest high-speed railway system and the biggest electrification transport system in the world. China is seriously working to rely less on fossil fuel, to immunize itself from being taken hostage by oil producing countries, with the USA intending to weaponize oil production to cripple China. You do not have to speculate why the USA is seizing oil from Iraq and Venezuela, controlling the Middle East oil producing countries and having eyes on Iranian oil as well.

The War against Iran and the Strait of Hormuz crisis is giving China a dry run in the event of oil blockade by the USA. The motto of China is - be prepared. and China is preparing on all counts. China is building up its renewable energy infrastructure in wind and solar, on top of dam construction, nuclear power station construction and constructing massive underground oil storage system that are safe from sabotage. While most countries have storage facilities mostly above ground, China is aware that such storage above ground poses several disadvantages and easily bombed to smithereens by enemies. This is the same thinking as what Singapore is doing by building huge underground caverns for oil storage, knowing that it is vulnerable to oil shocks by depending on other countries for such an important commodity.

In terms of scale, no country can compete against China, whether it is in scale of manufacturing facilities, refining facilities, sourcing of raw materials and competing against the best of the best in vehicle production, shipbuilding, infrastructure building and now in high tech industries.

China calculated with long term foresight regarding what is essential, what it needs to take control over and corner, what to build and what expertise to nurture to make all this happen.


Anonymous

American companies are more heavily subsidised than Chinese companies

When the time comes, the Chinaman will cook the cocky USA into chicken soup. The USA is now at a loss as to how to counter China in so many sectors. Most sectors producing things in the USA are rendered uncompetitive, but the narrative is always about unfair subsidies by the Chinese Government. Did anybody think about the tens of billions in subsidies by the USA Government trying to lure chip makers to build logistics in the USA? Those tens of billions in subsidies dwarfs what China is doing, but nobody seems to take note. What the USA did itself, it accuses others of doing it - so said Putin.

China is able to produce products cheaper with its cheaper energy from Russia and Iran, its hold over most raw materials it needs, its use of robotics in factories needing less manpower, a skilled workforce resulting from universities churning out skilled engineers that had been horned in specialties for the job. China is now the top dog in innovation. China holds more patents filed than any country in the world, including the USA.


Anonymous

Rwanda, an Africa miracle ascending the social and economic ladder

 

9 min on Rwanda, a small landlock country in Southeast Africa, how it becomes the most successful African state in economic and infrastructure development, raising the quality of life of its people and a stable, clean and peaceful country. It's president Kagame did not reinvent the wheel. He just took a copy of China's economic blueprint, adapt it to his country's need, without becoming China. Rwanda is now noted as the Singapore of Africa with a high standard and quality of life for a young emerging nation state with no access to the port, no oil, little natural resources.