Patchy at the top but not too bad further down the rungs.
After cultivating several Chinese
politicians in recent years, the Singapore Government will find a rather mixed
report card when it analyses the new Chinese leadership chosen last week.
Not all the bets of the island-nation
have paid off.
At the level of the 376-member
Central Committee, the news is quite bright.
Several Singapore-friendly
politicians were promoted to this elite body for the first time.
"Those who are promoted to
the Central Committee and are young enough may enter the Politburo later,"
said East Asian Institute analyst Chen Gang.
"The familiarity they have
now with Singapore may lead them to focus on economic, trade and investment
links with Singapore," he added.
Most of Singapore's focus at the
Central Committee level would be on Communist Youth League leader Lu Hao, 45.
He has been making regular
exchanges with the People's Action Party's youth wing and is seen as a likely
player in the leadership that will take charge in 2022.
Joining him in the Central
Committee is General Liu Yazhou, 60, political commissar of the National
Defence University and a known admirer of the Singapore system. Gen Liu's
promotion bodes well for bilateral as well as military ties between Singapore
and Beijing. The outspoken general is spearheading a documentary project by
state broadcaster Central China Television to chronicle the Republic's
development.
However, it is the rise of
lesser-known Yunnan deputy party boss Qiu He, 55, which has stirred excitement
among observers.
He is an alternate, rather than
full member of the Central Committee, which means he gets no voting rights.
Still, the appointment could signal his promotion to Yunnan party boss soon.
When Qiu was in charge of the
provincial capital Kunming, he had publicly pushed party cadres to learn about
Singapore and surpass the city-state.
It is likely that he will step up
efforts to emulate or work with Singapore when he gets a bigger role, said
Professor Lu Yuanli of Shenzhen University's Centre for Singapore Studies.
However, several members at the
higher party level, seen as close friends of Singapore, failed to move up. Two
Politburo high-fliers with close Singapore links were left out of the
seven-member elite Politburo Standing Committee (PSC).
They are organisation chief Li
Yuanchao, 62, and Guangdong party boss Wang Yang, 57.
But Dr Chen reckoned that the two
men still stand a chance of entering the PSC in 2017.
Two Singapore-friendly
politicians who made it into the elite body are new disciplinary chief Wang
Qishan, 64, and presumptive executive vice-premier Zhang Gaoli, 66. Wang has
been driving bilateral relations with Singapore for the past four years while
Zhang is party chief of Tianjin, where the flagship Sino-Singapore project,
Tianjin Eco-City, is coming up.
"Zhang's knowledge and
understanding of Singapore may boost bilateral economic cooperation," said
Prof Lu.
However, there was no promotion
for the so-called "Suzhou clique" of three former party chiefs of
Suzhou, where the first flagship Sino-Singapore project, Suzhou Industrial Park
(SIP), took off. The trio, including Chen Deming, are known to be close to Singapore
because of the SIP.
The biggest surprise was Chen,
63, the commerce minister. He had been widely tipped to enter the Politburo and
become a vice-premier. But he lost even his seat as an alternate member of the
Central Committee.
Another Suzhou old boy, Liaoning
party boss Wang Min, 62, also did not make it into the Politburo but remains in
the Central Committee. The third is Wang Rong, 54, party chief of Shenzhen, who
is still an alternate member in the Central Committee.
Kor Kian Beng
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