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Yuanyue Dang

Former Singaporean prime minister Lee Hsien Loong will pay a six-day visit to China starting on Sunday, according to the Chinese foreign ministry.
Lee, now a senior minister, is one of China’s most frequently visiting foreign leaders – having made more than 10 trips as prime minister in the two decades from 2004.
He visited most recently in March last year, when he met Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang.
This will be Lee’s first visit since stepping down as prime minister in May, when he passed the baton to Lawrence Wong – his deputy in the ruling People’s Action Party.
At a global forum in Singapore last month, Lee said that it would be “very unwise to write off China” despite its slow economic recovery, and emphasised that both the United States and China were in “danger of underestimating one another”.
China and Singapore, which upgraded relations to an “all-round high-quality future-oriented partnership” last year, will mark 35 years of diplomatic relations in 2025.
Foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said on Friday that Lee’s visit was at the invitation of China and he would stay until November 29.
It will be the latest in a series of high-level bilateral exchanges in recent months.
Last Friday, Xi and Wong held talks in Lima, Peru, on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ meetings. China would “maintain close high-level exchanges [with Singapore], adhere to the principles of openness and mutual trust, and respect each other’s core interests”, Xi said.
According to the Singaporean foreign ministry, the two leaders “also discussed regional and international developments, including the importance of upholding the rules-based multilateral trading system, and developments in the Taiwan Strait”.
On November 11, Chinese Vice-Premier Ding Xuexiang met Wong during a visit to Singapore which saw Ding co-chair the 20th Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation.
Ding told Wong that China was willing to maintain communication with Singapore “on major international and regional strategic issues and jointly safeguard economic globalisation”, while Wong said Singapore was willing to play a “constructive role” in developing Beijing’s relations with Asean.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Singaporean counterpart Vivian Balakrishnan have met twice this year, including during Balakrishnan’s visit to Beijing in September.
Beijing has sought to strengthen economic and trade ties with Southeast Asian countries, despite territorial disputes with some Asean members in the South China Sea triggering maritime clashes, including several encounters with Philippine vessels this year.
Singapore, a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, has called for a diplomatic solution to the disputes.


This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Suzhou Industrial Park, one of China’s most successful industrial parks and one of its most important cooperation projects with Singapore.
Lee’s father, former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, was the initial advocate of the project.
On Thursday, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce announced new measures to support the development of the park, including expanding cooperation with Singapore.
China has been Singapore’s largest trading partner since 2013, with bilateral trade totalling US$108.39 billion last year, according to data from both countries.
In February, the two countries launched a 30-day mutual visa-free entry scheme for their nationals.


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Chinese President Xi Jinping with then Singaporean prime minister Lee Hsien Loong during his last visit to Beijing, in March 2023. Photo: AP

Lee Hsien Loong on ‘Singapore’s calculations’ in foreign policy and US fears over Taiwan conflict

Then-US president Donald Trump shakes hands with then-Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at a meeting in New York in 2019. Photo: AFP

Members of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army take part in a military drill around Taiwan at an undisclosed location in October. Photo: Handout via Reuters

Chinese President Xi Jinping and then-Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou wave at their 2015 summit in Singapore. Photo: Reuters

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Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and China’s Vice-Premier Ding Xuexiang meet in Singapore on Monday. Photo: Lawrence Wong/Facebook

China’s Premier Li Qiang meets with Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong in Vientiane on October 11. Photo: Xinhua

The China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park. Photo: Xinhua

News

China

Diplomacy

Lee, now a senior minister, was one of China’s most frequently visiting foreign leaders during his 20 years at the helm from 2004


Lee, now a senior minister, was one of China’s most frequently visiting foreign leaders during his 20 years at the helm from 2004.


China-Singapore relations