The ‘Singapore Model’ and China’s Neo-Authoritarian Dream

Professor Mark R THOMPSON and Dr Stephan ORTMANN, both from CityU, led the project “The ‘Singapore Model’ and Its Influence on China”. A workshop attended by many experts in the field was held on 9 April 2016 at CityU and supported by the Southeast Asian Research Centre. The research involved was supported by two CityU strategic research grants, “Teaching Authoritarian Developmentalism: The ‘Singapore Model’” (Grant No. 7004349) and “The ‘Singapore Model’ and Its Influence on China” (Grant No. 7004477).

Background

The special section published in The China Quarterly deals with China’s long-standing fascination with Singapore’s development experience, one that has preoccupied post-Maoist leaders from Deng Xiaoping to Xi Jinping, despite the obvious differences between the tiny Southeast Asian city state and the most populous country on earth. In particular, there is great Chinese interest in Singapore’s success in combining effective governance and efficient state capitalism with stable one-party dominant rule. The articles in this special section show that scholars and policymakers from China have flocked to the city state to study practical governance lessons, and to learn more about an exemplary form of state capitalism. At the same time, interest in the “Singapore Model” has also involved pragmatic cooperation between Singaporean and Chinese officials. Some authors, however, argue that interest in Singapore has also been motivated primarily by a search for ideological confirmation that successful economic modernisation can be combined with one-party rule.

Major findings

The paper “Mis-modelling Singapore: China’s Challenges in Learning from the City-state”, co-authored by Thompson and Ortmann, finds that Singapore exemplifies what China strives for: resilient authoritarianism despite advanced development, with good governance and political stability. But the lessons Chinese observers draw from the Southeast Asian city state have been selective, leading to misconceptions. The study focuses on three key areas in which Chinese observers claim inspiration from the “Singapore model”: Singapore’s “Asian values” discourse as an ideological defence of non-democratic rule, elections which are seen to bolster the ruling People’s Action Party’s legitimacy in Singapore, and Singapore’s fight against corruption. All of the lessons tend to ignore fundamental differences between the two countries.

In “From Sweden to Singapore: The Relevance of Foreign Models for China’s Rise”, Yang Kai and Ortmann argue that Sweden and Singapore have drawn particularly strong interest from Chinese academics because the two countries represent two different “third ways” between Communism and capitalism and have been useful for developing a socialism “with Chinese characteristics”. Since Xi Jinping assumed power in 2012, interest in Sweden has reached a nadir, while the attention focused on Singapore has peaked. Although Chinese state capitalism faces many challenges, it will be difficult to find an alternative role model that can successfully combine one-party rule with economic modernisation.