Archive Interview: Lee Hsien Loong on What Singapore Can – and Can’t – Teach China

Eight years ago, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong sat for an exclusive interview with Caixin, in which he touched upon a wide range of topics from how to maintain Singaporean economic competitiveness to how Singapore positions itself in the regional and international geopolitical landscape.

Today, we are living in a quite different world. First, the Covid-19 pandemic and then the Russia-Ukraine war —a global health challenge combined with escalating geopolitical tensions — has put a brake on what has been taken for granted such as globalization at best and turned peace and development upside down at worst. As a city-state in one of the most dynamic while at the same time tension-prone regions in the world, Singapore has much more to digest and adapt to amid such a once-in-a-century transformation. Opportunities remain but challenges could be greater and harder to navigate. If flexibility and pragmatism are the hallmark of a successful Singapore, resilience needs to become a defining characteristic for Singapore in the years to come.