5.
CONFIDENTIAL
Racial tensions and their political effects brought about the separation of Singapore
from the Malaysian Federation in 1965. Since then the Singapore government has
has been intent on fostering both a sense of
sense of nationhood and practical cooperation with its ASEAN partners, including Malaysia on which Singapore is dependent for the supply of water and other vital commodities. Singapore, with a largely ethnic Chinese population in a region where Chinese influence is by and large resisted, has felt it wise to reassure its neighbours of its determination to develop as a South-East Asian state anxious to cultivate its own identity. In furtherance of this aim, as well as to meet internal racial stresses, it has emphasised its status as a multi-racial society with Malay as the national language and four official languages: Chinese (Mandarin), English, Malay and Tamil. The ascendancy of English has helped to bring Singapore forward into the modern financial world.
6. Commercial links with the People's Republic of China (PRC) were never completely interrupted even before Singapore's independence (the Bank of China has continuously maintained a branch there since the late 1940s). Singapore has served as an entrepot for PRC exports to other South-East Asian countries (contributing to the consistent bilateral trade imbalance in China's favour). Singapore and the PRC have had official trade offices in each other's country since 1981. But, out of deference to its neighbours' sensitivities, Singapore has been especially cautious in its contacts with the PRC, maintaining that it will not establish diplomatic relations with the PRC until all its ASEAN* partners have done so.
(The last such assurance noted was made in February 1985 in briefings by the Singaporean Ministry of Foreign Affairs to European Community Heads of Mission and to representatives of the media on the Foreign Minister's visit to Singapore in January 1985.)
Chinese
7. Despite the absence of diplomatic relations, Singapore has in effect recognised China, though in an indirect manner. The official Singaporean position, as set out privately in October 1977 by the Singaporean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is that Singapore recognised China by virtue of having supported the resolution on the admission of China to the UN in 1971. The then Foreign Minister, Mr Rajaratnam, quoted by the press in September 1971, said Singapore accepted there was one China and regarded Taiwan as a domestic issue for the peoples of China. This represented a clarification in Singapore's thinking on Taiwan. In October 1965, the Singaporean delegate to the UN General Assembly had spoken in favour of a two- China line, though his words were almost immediately modified by a Singaporean government statement which made clear that the government had an open mind on the question of whether there should be one China ΟΙ two. Mr Lee Kuan Yew, quoted by the press in November 1965, further refined the Singaporean position when he said Singapore supported China's unconditional entry into the United
* The ASEAN countries are: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand and, since 1983, Brunei.
3
CONFIDENTIAL
/Nations