Singapore hopes US can stabilise relations with China

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

SINGAPORE (Xinhua): Singapore hopes the United States can stabilse its relations with China, since Asia depends on stable US-China ties to have a "secure" and "predictable" environment, said Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Tuesday (July 28).

Lee made the remarks in an online interview hosted by Washington-based think tank Atlantic Council, The Straits Times reported on Wednesday.

Lee also voiced hope that the incoming US president, be it Republican or Democratic, can develop a bipartisan consensus on US-Asia relations so that the US foreign policy will be consistent and last beyond one administration.

"If you can establish a stable, predictable policy with bipartisan consensus, I think it would be a great help to all your friends and partners who want to be able to depend on you and to rely on you, without the risk that one day the big power may suddenly decide its interests lie elsewhere," he said.

Meanwhile, Lee said that Singapore will not exclude Chinese tech-company Huawei from its 5G networks bidding process, although Huawei was not chosen this time round.

"The bidders did not choose Huawei. But in some of the other aspects of the 5G networks, Huawei will be figured in, and in future bids I have no doubt it will be participating again," Lee said.

On Tuesday, Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China will make firm and rational responses to US acts as the United States has been so blatant and unreasonable.

Wang shared his view on China-US relationship during a phone conversation with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.

Wang said that the current China-US relationship has become a source of concern for many in the international community, adding that the fundamental reason is that a certain political faction in the United States, driven by the need to lift campaign prospects and maintain unipolar hegemony, are going all out to negate the history of China-US relations, suppress China on every front, provoke China on its core interests, attack the social system chosen by the Chinese people, and vilify the ruling party with inseparable links to the Chinese people.

The US acts have forsaken the most basic sense of propriety in interactions between countries and breached the very bottom line of international norms, said Wang, adding that such behaviour is stark power politics that can be captured by one word: hegemony.

Wang called for vigilance after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's recent remarks instigating renewed ideological confrontation and leading the world to a new Cold War, saying that it is as if people can already see the ghost of McCarthyism rising from the ashes.

Should such conspiracy theories be allowed to have their way, not only will China-US relations fall into the abyss of confrontation, but the whole world will face a crisis of division and mankind's future will be in peril, Wang said.

Noting that the United States, promoting "America First" over the past years, has been going further down the path of unilateralism, repeatedly breaking its international commitments and obligations, and severely undermining the international law and order, Wang said that the number of international treaties that the current US administration pulled out from is far larger than that of any of its predecessor.

What's worse, at the critical time when solidarity is most needed by the international community to fight Covid-19, Washington announced withdrawal from the World Health Organization and dodged its responsibilities as a major country despite objections from all over the world, Wang said.

China will take firm countermeasures against the egregious behaviours that undermine China's legitimate rights and interests, Wang said, adding that China does not stir up troubles and always exercises maximum restraint.

The US side forcefully demanded the closure of the Chinese Consulate General in Houston, a provocation against China's sovereignty and dignity, which was surely met with China's legitimate and necessary response, Wang said, adding that this is consistent with customary diplomatic practices and a due right enjoyed by all sovereign nations.

Calling for rational communication between China and the United States, Wang said that Beijing will never allow a few anti-China elements to overturn decades of successful exchanges and cooperation between China and the United States, nor will Beijing allow ideological prejudice to undermine the future development of China-US relations, Xinhua reports from Beijing.