Nations on people, and
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that
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as
simple vote
of the the
representatives the people of Taiwan the position of decided at a later stage.
Chinese should be
8. In opening diplomatic relations with Malaysia in 1974, the PRC abandoned the position it had adopted in the 1960s (in line with the
the policy of
Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) at that time) of opposing both the formation of the Federation of Malaysia and the separation of Malaya and Singapore. Since the mid-1970s the PRC has expressed willingness to open diplomatic relations with Singapore when the latter is ready to do so.
9. Besides the more general changes in Chinese policy which are associated with Deng Xiaoping, the reduction in Chinese support for South-East Asian insurgent communist parties has had some effect on China's relations with Singapore and with the other South-East Asian countries, though it has not completely dispelled anxieties on this score felt by the governments of these countries. By the beginning of the 1980s Chinese support for regional communist parties appeared
to have been cut
In extremely an
to low level.
response from South-East representations
Asian countries, the Chinese have said that they will abstain from any interference in the affairs of these countries, while asserting their right to maintain inter-party relations and give moral support to communist parties in the region, which they regard as
regard as free to choose their
to choose their own methods of struggle. Such explanations
not fully satisfied the South-East Asian
to
governments.
10.
have
Two events have given some weight to the Chinese claim that These were the they no longer give substantial support to the CPM. return of Musa Bin Ahmad, the then Chairman of the CPM from Peking to Malaysia and his surrender to the Malaysian authorities in November 1980; and the closing down from 1 July 1981 of the "Voice of the Malayan Revolution", a clandestine pro-CPM radio station that had been operating from southern China. The radio station had directed propaganda against both Malaysian and Singaporean
leaders. government
place,
was however,
taken almost immediately by
transmitter, the "Voice of Malayan This station still Democracy", broadcasting from Southern Thailand.
Its
mobile a
emits propaganda against Malaysian and Singaporean leaders, but has modified its tone.
Yet another clandestine radio station broadcasting against the government of Malaysia is the "Voice of the People of Malaysia".
11. Lee Kuan Yew has repeatedly raised with the Chinese leadership the question of Chinese support for South-East Asian communist parties. With the CPM no longer active in Singapore, his represent- ations are
are evidently intended to register Singapore's sympathy with the concern of other ASEAN countries.
12.
Singapore's former policy of adopting a more critical attitude than its neighbours towards China's intentions in the region has
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