Singapore PM in Beijing on last leg of China visit; meets Beijing party chief

Lee Hsien Loong (left) told Beijing party secretary Yin Li that Singapore had good relations with cities and provinces across China, including Beijing. - MCI

BEIJING (The Straits Times/Asia News Network): Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong started the third and final leg of his official visit to China by calling on Beijing party secretary Yin Li on Friday (March 31).

Yin, who became the top Communist Party official in charge of the capital city in November, also hosted Lee to lunch.

In his welcome remarks, Yin said that even though it was the first time he was meeting Lee, he has met Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan three times in two years, and Singapore’s ambassador to China Lui Tuck Yew a total of five times.

“It is safe to say that we have very close interactions and relations,” said Yin, who was accompanied by Beijing mayor Yin Yong.

Lee told the Beijing party chief that Singapore has good relations with cities and provinces across China, including the capital city.

“Our people have been talking to each other. You said meeting me, my foreign minister, my ambassador one, three, five times. I think we should continue this progression and in future there will be many reasons to meet seven, nine, 11 and more times for many different cooperation projects,” said Lee.

The prime minister will meet President Xi Jinping on Friday afternoon at the Great Hall of the People, as well as Zhao Leji, head of the National People’s Congress or parliament, and Wang Huning, who chairs China’s top advisory body.

Zhao is ranked third in the Politburo Standing Committee – the pinnacle of power – after President Xi and Premier Li Qiang. Mr Wang is ranked fourth out of seven members.

Lee has met Zhao on a number of occasions, such as in 2013 and 2017, when the Chinese leader visited Singapore as co-chair of the Singapore-China Forum on Leadership, which brings together senior officials from both countries for leadership development and training. The Singapore co-chair has been Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean.

Lee and Wang go back even further; to 1993 when Lee, then deputy prime minister, was the guest-of-honour at an international university debate competition in Singapore and Wang, then a professor at Shanghai’s elite Fudan University, led its debate team.

Lee’s week-long trip to China, which ends on Saturday, also included the southern city of Guangzhou in Guangdong province where he visited the Guangzhou Knowledge City, a joint project to promote hi-tech industries by Singapore and China, and met Guangdong party chief Huang Kunming and Singaporeans at a reception.

In Hainan island, Lee spoke at the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference.

The last time Lee visited China was in 2019 for the Belt and Road Forum. He had also met Xi at the Great Hall of the People then.

China shut its borders in March 2020 in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, and only reopened them in January this year.

But Lee and Xi met in Bangkok in November 2022 on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Economic Leaders’ Meeting.