PRESIDENT HU - SINGAPORE VISIT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 SINGAPORE 001138 SIPDIS DEPT OF INTERIOR FOR USFWS - S. KOHL EAP/MTS - M. COPPOLA EAP/CM E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/19/2019 TAGS: PREL PGOV APEC CN SN SUBJECT: PRESIDENT HU - SINGAPORE VISIT Classified By: CDA Daniel Shields for Reasons 1.4 (b/d) ¶1. (C) Summary: During the State Visit to Singapore by Chinese President Hu Jintao, China and Singapore reached four agreements: the "loan" of two pandas, a tie-up between Singapore University of Technology and Design and Zhejiang University, the formalization of civil leadership exchanges, and the establishment in Singapore of a China Cultural Center. An MFA contact said the Singapore-China relationship has moved on to the next level, in which the two sides do not need to produce deliverables every time they meet. Other observors were pleased that a potential flap was avoided over Lee Kuan Yew's controversial (in China) U.S. speech in which he called for a strong U.S. presence in Asia to balance China's growing influence. End Summary. The Deliverables -------------- ¶2. (C) Chinese President Hu Jintao made a State Visit to Singapore in connection with his travel to the city-state for the Asia Pacific Ecnomic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders Meeting in mid-November. The government-influenced Straits Times newspaper devoted most of its coverage to China's decision to loan two pandas to Singapore for ten years. Other deliverables were reportedly: a tie-up between Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) and Zhejiang University, the formalization of ongoing civil-leadership exchanges, and the establishment in Singapore of a China Cultural Center. ¶3. (C) MFA Northeast Asia Deputy Director Tracy Chan told Poloff that the relative lack of substantive deliverables should be taken as a sign that the PRC-Singapore relationship has matured to the extent that the two sides do not need to produce deliverables every time they meet. The PRC has been consistent over the years in its approach to Singapore and bilateral interactions and exchanges are now regularized to the point that both sides have a general understanding of what they hope to gain from the relationship. Contrasting Singapore-PRC with Singapore-U.S. relations, Chan said China is like the parent who is always there; for better or worse, you know what to expect and your attitude toward the parent is tempered. The United States, on the other hand, is like the parent who travels too much; whenever that parent gives the child attention, the kid just laps it up, Chan said. ¶4. (C) Commenting on Zhejiang-SUTD tie up, Professor Huang Jing, visiting scholar at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, noted that SUTD, Singapore's third major (and newest) university, had also recently signed a cooperation agreement with MIT. Singapore and the United States would need to take note, Huang warned, because China will hope to tap into MIT's expertise. China is keen to gain access to advanced technologies in the areas of space science, biotech and IT, all areas which MIT and SUTD will have some expertise, Huang said. ¶5. (C) The formalization of existing civil-leader exchanges simply regularizes an ongoing process whereby a steady stream of Chinese leaders come to Singapore to learn about good governance and infrastructure development, Chan said. ¶6. (C) The PRC will operate the new Chinese cultural center to be built in Singapore, Chan said. The establishment of the center is in recognition of the deepening ties between the two countries and the fact that Singapore recruits an ever-expanding pool of Chinese to emigrate to Singapore and "become Singaporean," Chan said. ¶7. (C) Commenting on the pandas, Chan said Singapore closely studied the U.S.-China Panda Loan program. Chan said Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) and the China Wildlife Conservation Association (CWCA) signed a ten-year agreement that commits the WRS to pay CWCA several hundred thousand dollars per year for each panda for use in panda habitat protection and research. Commenting on the controversy created two years ago when Atlanta and Memphis zoos publicly complained about the high costs (USD 1,000,000 per panda per year) those zoos were paying for their pandas, Chan noted that Singapore negotiated a much better deal, somewhere in the realm of what the San Diego Zoo recently negotiated (approximately USD 600,000 per year). SINGAPORE 00001138 002 OF 002 No Major Hiccup in Relation to LKY Speech -------------- ¶8. (C) Professor Huang noted that while Chinese netizens were highly critical of Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew's speech at the US-ASEAN Business Council in Washington in October (in which LKY called for a strong U.S. presence in Asia to "balance" China's growing influence),there was little political fallout during President Hu's visit as the PRC delegation did not make an issue of the speech. Perhaps the PRC treated Singapore somewhat coldly, Huang said, but the Chinese were not openly critical of Singapore or LKY. While the PRC did accept Singapore's offer of a State Visit for President Hu Jintao, the PRC delegation for the most part minimized its interaction with the GOS and instead focused on its interactions with the other major countries attending APEC, Huang said. Singapore-Taiwan -------------- ¶9. (C) The PRC indicated to Singapore that any Singapore-Taiwan bilats should only be held after APEC, Chan told Poloff. Singapore tacitly complied with the PRC's wishes and when Singapore held its bilat with Taiwan's representative to APEC after APEC officially ended, China made no critical comments. Chan stressed that this stands in stark contrast to the years of the Chen administration, when the PRC sought to isolate Taiwan at every opportunity. PRC's Long-Term Plans for Singapore -------------- ¶10. (C) Professor Huang said that although China made clear to Singapore during the Hu visit that China is more important to Singapore than vice versa, China still sees the utility of a positive relationship with Singapore. China is enticed by Singapore's strategic location along the Straits of Malacca, Huang said. China views the Straits of Malacca as one of the three critical straits it must control in time of conflict, the other two being the Straits of Tsushima (between Japan and S. Korea) and the Taiwan Strait. Singapore is also the only Asia-Pacific country (outside of the United States and Japan) that has the capability to provide logistical support for a blue-water navy, Huang said. As China develops its blue water capabilities, it will push hard to learn as much as it can from Singapore about how to provide logistical support for such a fleet. Huang suggested that sometime in the 2015-2020 time-frame, the PRC would likely send its then-to-be-built aircraft carrier to Singapore for its first international port visit. The PRC would then likely seek to formalize access to Changi naval base as a major logistical port for its fleet. SHIELDS Visit Embassy Singapore's Classified website: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eap/singapore/ind ex.cfm