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Reversing China’s Belt-and-Road Initiative—Singapore’s Response to the BRI and Its Quest for Relevance

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Abstract

The article seeks to explain why Singapore—a high-income, developed economy that does not require massive external financing or technical assistance for domestic infrastructure building—has repeatedly endorsed Belt-and-Road Initiative (BRI) and cooperated in related projects. Given the city-state’s exceptionally high degree of economic openness and hence dependence on international trade, it argues that Singapore’s support for BRI is driven primarily by its quest for strategic relevance. Lacking natural resources and an economic hinterland, the small trading state has pursued state-guided development, establishing itself as a key regional and global trading hub. Singapore’s economic goals thus correspond to BRI’s objective of improving Eurasian connectivity and strengthening trade and investment ties. At the same time, however, the city-state is also pursuing a hedging strategy vis-à-vis China. Singapore seeks to ensure no one major power dictates the economic terms in the region. The city-state hence seeks to both socialize Beijing in the norms of the existing regional architecture through engagement, while also emphasizing economic relations with other countries, especially the USA. Unlike most of China’s other BRI partners, Singapore is not a recipient of investments, but rather a case of “reverse BRI flow”: Singapore is investing in the development of China’s western region, especially Chongqing. Singapore’s support for BRI is likely to continue, even though the state may encounter obstacles along the way, such as the need to manage the effects of growing Sino-US rivalry.

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Notes

  1. 2017 figures provided by the World Bank [31].

  2. In general, failure to abide by the terms of social contracts results in either punishments for citizens or sanctions for governments, such as losing elections or being overthrown through violent means. Fear of such reprisals drives the state and society to engage in a repeated pattern of behaviour that upholds their respective ends of the bargain. The existence of a social contract can thus be inferred from a country’s constitution, laws, and policies; official discourses and statements; and the narratives that governments construct.

  3. Even at the 2011 parliamentary election in which the PAP performed its worst since Singapore’s independence in 1965, the PAP received 60.1% of total votes and captured 76 out of the 82 seats contested [21].

  4. State capitalism is an approach to nation building whereby a government goes into business to create employment and generate profits for state coffers. It also reflects a parallel concept, that of a developmental state which describes a government that pursues national economic development through the establishment of an elite economic bureaucracy to guide the market.

  5. Latest figures on GLCs’ contribution to Singapore’s total output are unavailable on open sources. Ibid, p. 305 [42].

  6. Kiasu is an expression in the Chinese Fujian (or Hokkien) dialect. The literal translation in English is “afraid to lose”: kia means “afraid” and su means “lose”.

  7. The GBA is Xi Jinping’s other ambitious domestic economic development initiative that runs parallel with China’s BRI pursuits. It is based on the concept of a megacity that will integrate the semi-autonomous regions of Hong Kong and Macau with nine neighbouring urban areas—including the megacities of Shenzhen and Guangzhou [8, 44].

  8. Apart from the Workers’ Party and the Reform Party, no other opposition party has specifically expressed their views for Singapore’s foreign relations in their party manifestos in the 2015 elections.

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  1. China Programme, Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Ave, Block S4, Level B3, Singapore, 639798, Singapore

    Irene Chan

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Chan, I. Reversing China’s Belt-and-Road Initiative—Singapore’s Response to the BRI and Its Quest for Relevance. East Asia 36, 185–204 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12140-019-09317-7

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