Singapore warns US on anti-China rhetoric
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Posted: 09 February 2012 0632 hrs
WASHINGTON: Singapore on Wednesday urged the United States to be careful in comments on China, warning that suggestions of a strategy to contain the rising power could cause strife in Asia.
On a visit to Washington, Foreign Minister K. Shanmugam voiced confidence that the State Department accepted the need for cooperation with China but said that US commentary too often cast Asian politics in "win/lose sporting terms."
"Domestic pressures in the US and the demands of elections have resulted in some anti-China rhetoric in domestic debates," Shanmugam told a conference on Singapore at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"We in Singapore understand that some of this is inevitable in an election year. But Americans should not underestimate the extent to which such rhetoric can spark reaction which can create a new and unintended reality for the region," he said.
Singapore is a close partner of Washington and home to a key US military logistical base. But the city-state is highly dependent on trade and has sought smooth commercial relations with Asia's major economic powers such as China, Japan and India.
"It's quite untenable -- quite absurd -- to speak in terms of containment of China. That's a country with 1.3 billion people," Shanmugam said.
"It is determined to progress in all fields and take its rightful place in the community of nations. It will succeed in that venture," he said.
The United States, while looking to trim spending on its giant military to tame a soaring debt, has set a priority on Asia as rapid economic growth and the rise of China look set to reshape the region.
The US military has sought closer cooperation with the Philippines and Vietnam, which have accused China of increasingly bellicose actions to assert control over disputed territories in the South China Sea.
Shanmugan said that the United States should also look at other ways of engagement in Asia such as pressing ahead with the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an emerging trade pact that involves at least nine countries.
It is "a mistake to focus only on the US military presence in the region, to the exclusion of other dimensions of US policy," he said.
President Barack Obama's administration has repeatedly said that it welcomes the rise of China and will try to find areas for cooperation. Vice President Joe Biden, ahead of a US visit by his counterpart Xi Jinping, called in a statement Wednesday for the two powers to work together on "practical issues."
Shanmugan did not cite examples of "anti-China" comments in the United States, but a number of US lawmakers have raised fears about Beijing's rise.
At a congressional hearing Tuesday, Representative Dana Rohrabacher called for the United States to ramp up support for the Philippines to help the democratic US ally assert its claims in maritime disputes with China.
"We need to stand as aggressively and as solidly with the Filipino government in their confronting an aggressive, arrogant China -- expansionist China -- as we have stood with them against radical Islam," said Rohrabacher, a Republican from California.
Economic disputes with China have also come to the forefront.
In a recent television commercial that outraged Asian American groups, Representative Pete Hoekstra -- a Republican seeking a Senate seat in Michigan -- attacked his opponent with an advertisement criticizing US debt to China.
In the advertisement, a young Asian woman -- in a setting that looked more like Vietnam than China -- said in broken English, "Your economy get very weak; ours get very good."
- AFP -
When Singapore Government talk to the World, the World laugh at them.
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thats cuz the world nows spore gov cant help shit for most its own citizens in spore and out of spore.so it goes around trying to help the world.......thats very "rich" from spore indeed!
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wrong - history has shown that the cheenas are war hungry people. just need to change a ruler like hitler and you see the whole china may shift to anotehr face. US and otehr major continents are our hope of keep this elephant in check. if she gets too powerful who know what will happen. japan, korea, taiwan, tibet - these are countries even in peace time they wanna take full control of. so beware. if they go war it won;t be too diffcilut for their military now to cross laso, vietnam, thailand, malasya and down to singapore.
i made this comment not becasue i scare of them. one day if its war - i like many others - probably a few - will standa nd fight
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Warn lam par.
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Originally posted by troublemaker2005:
wrong - history has shown that the cheenas are war hungry people. just need to change a ruler like hitler and you see the whole china may shift to anotehr face. US and otehr major continents are our hope of keep this elephant in check. if she gets too powerful who know what will happen. japan, korea, taiwan, tibet - these are countries even in peace time they wanna take full control of. so beware. if they go war it won;t be too diffcilut for their military now to cross laso, vietnam, thailand, malasya and down to singapore.
i made this comment not becasue i scare of them. one day if its war - i like many others - probably a few - will standa nd fight
Yup. China didn't get to this size by being peaceful.
Invaded vietnam in 1979 too.
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Who the hell they think they are to tell US?? Mind their own business before pointing fingers. Apple polishing China!
The west and even some asians have no regard for the govt called PAP. Umm chai bai! yeee yucks ...... embarass us the citizens