Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-29T05:54:10.188Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The “Singapore Fever” in China: Policy Mobility and Mutation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 December 2016

Kean Fan Lim  and
Niv Horesh
Kean Fan Lim*
Affiliation:
University of Nottingham.
Niv Horesh
Affiliation:
University of Nottingham. Email: Niv.Horesh@nottingham.ac.uk.
*
Email: keanfan.lim@nottingham.ac.uk (corresponding author).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The “Singapore model” constitutes only the second explicit attempt by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to learn from a foreign country following Mao Zedong's pledge to contour “China's tomorrow” on the Soviet Union experience during the early 1950s. This paper critically evaluates policy transfers from Singapore to China in the post-Mao era. It re-examines how this Sino-Singaporean regulatory engagement came about historically following Deng Xiaoping's visit to Singapore in 1978, and offers a careful re-reading of the degree to which actual policy borrowing by China could transcend different state ideologies, abstract ideas and subjective attitudes. Particular focus is placed on the effects of CCP cadre training in Singaporean universities and policy mutation within two government-to-government projects, namely the Suzhou Industrial Park and the Tianjin Eco-City. The paper concludes that the “Singapore model,” as applied in post-Mao China, casts institutional reforms as an open-ended process of policy experimentation and adaptation that is fraught with tension and resistance.

摘要

“新加坡模式”是 1950 年代早期毛泽东誓言以苏联经验塑造 “中国的明天” 后中国共产党第二次明确表明学习的外国对象。本文评价后毛时代中国对新加坡经验的学习和政策的传送。著者重新审视邓小平 1978 年到访新加坡后中国在监管领域上借鉴新加坡经验的历史起源, 而重新诠释新加坡对中国实际的政策传送可否跨越意识形态, 抽象理念和主观态度的差异。本文仔细分析新加坡大学培训对中共党员回国后的影响和中新政府在苏州和天津合作项目中的政策传送和突变。分析结果显示 “新加坡模式” 应用于后毛时代中国反映了中共制度改革上的开放性和实验性, 也凸现改革过程中的张力和阻力。

Keywords

ChinaSingaporelesson drawingpolicy transferpolicy mutation中国新加坡模式政策传送政策突变借鉴经验
Type
Articles
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 228 , December 2016 , pp. 992 - 1017
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bramall, Chris. 2007. The Industrialization of Rural China. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Caprotti, Federico. 2015. Eco-Cities and the Transition to Low Carbon Economies. London: Palgrave Pivot.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caprotti, Federico, Springer, Cecilia and Harmer, Nichola. 2015. “‘Eco’ for whom? Envisioning eco-urbanism in the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city, China.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 39(3), 495–517.Google Scholar
Chang, Chak Yan. 1980. “Overseas Chinese in China's policy.” The China Quarterly 82, 281–303.Google Scholar
Cheah, Boon Kheng. 2009. “The communist insurgency in Malaysia, 1948–90: contesting the nation-state and social change.” New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies 11(1), 32–152.Google Scholar
Chen, Gang, and Zhao, Litao. 2014. “Translating concept into practice: Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City project.” In Saw, Swee-Hock and Wong, John (eds.), Advancing Singapore–China Economic Relations. Singapore: ISEAS, 94–125.Google Scholar
Chen, Hong. 2007. “Zhongguo jingji tequ jianli de qianqian houhou” (The before and after of special economic zone construction in China). Wenshibolan 12, 4–8.Google Scholar
Chen, Zhimin. 2005. “Nationalism, internationalism and Chinese foreign policy.” Journal of Contemporary China 14(42), 35–53.Google Scholar
Chin, C.C., and Hack, Karl (eds.). 2004. Dialogues with Chin Peng: New Light on the Malayan Communist Party. Singapore: Singapore University Press.Google Scholar
Chin, Peng. 2003. My Side of History. Singapore: Media Masters.Google Scholar
de Jong, Martin. 2013. “China's art of institutional bricolage: selectiveness and gradualism in the policy transfer style of a nation.” Policy and Society 32(2), 89–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deng, Xiaoping. 1993. Deng Xiaoping wenxuan (Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping) Vol. 3. Beijing: Renmin chubanshe.Google Scholar
Deng, Xiaoping. 1994. Deng Xiaoping wenxuan (Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping) Vol. 2. Beijing: Renmin chubanshe.Google Scholar
Desker, Barry, and Kwa, Chong Guan. 2011. Goh Keng Swee: A Public Career Remembered. Singapore: World Scientific.Google Scholar
Dolowitz, David, and Marsh, David. 2000. “Learning from abroad: the role of policy transfer in contemporary policy-making.” Governance 13(1), 5–24.Google Scholar
Evans, Mark, and Davies, Jonathan. 1999. “Understanding policy transfer: a multi-level, multi-disciplinary perspective.” Public Administration 77, 361–385.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Han, Rui, and Jingping, Li. 2012. “Xinjiapo gongwuyuan zhongyang gongjijin zhidu jiqi qishi” (Lessons of Singapore's civil service central provident fund institution). Lilun yu gaige 3, 99–102.Google Scholar
Heaton, William. 1982. “China and Southeast Asian communist movements: the decline of dual track diplomacy.” Asian Survey 22(8), 779–800.Google Scholar
Huang, Chaohan, and Baocui, Lou. 2014. “Zhongxin guanxi qianjing: Xinjiapo mianlin de xin tiaozhan” (PRC–Singapore relations: new challenges). Journal of Henan Normal University 41(1), 66–70.Google Scholar
Huff, Gregg. 1995a. “What is the Singapore model of economic development?” Cambridge Journal of Economics 19(6), 735–759.Google Scholar
Huff, Gregg. 1995b. “The developmental state, government, and Singapore's economic development since 1960.” World Development 23(8), 1421–38.Google Scholar
Inkpen, Andrew, and Wang, Pien. 2006. “An examination of collaboration and knowledge transfer: China–Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park.” Journal of Management Studies 43(4), 779–811.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuang, Daoqiu. 2013. Xingdaojueqi: Xinjiapo de liguo zhihui (Rise of a Star Island: Nation-building Intelligence of Singapore). Beijing: Renmin chubanshe.Google Scholar
Latif, Asad. 2007. Between Rising Powers: China, Singapore, and India. Singapore: ISEAS.Google Scholar
Li, Luqu. 2008. “Xinjiapo zhengzhi fazhan moshi bijiao yanjiu” (Comparative research on political development in Singapore). Shehuizhuyi yanjiu 2008(1), 127–131.Google Scholar
Lim, Kean Fan. 2012. “The point is to keep going: the global sub-prime mortgage crisis, local labour market repositioning, and the capital accumulation dynamic in Singapore.” Journal of Economic Geography 12(3), 693–716.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lim, Kean Fan. 2016. “On the shifting spatial logics of socioeconomic regulation in post-1949 China.” Territory, Politics, Governance. DOI: 10.1080/21622671.2015.1099466.Google Scholar
Ma, Yufeng. 2006a. Zoujin Xinjiapo 1 (Entering Singapore 1). Singapore: Candid Creation Publishing.Google Scholar
Ma, Yufeng. 2006b. Zoujin Xinjiapo 2 (Entering Singapore 2). Singapore: Candid Creation Publishing.Google Scholar
Miao, Bo, and Lang, Graeme. 2015. “A tale of two eco-cities: experimentation under hierarchy in Shanghai and Tianjin.” Urban Policy and Research 33(2), 247–263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oi, Jean C. 1999. Rural China Takes Off: Institutional Foundations of Economic Reform. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olds, Kris, and Yeung, Henry Wai-Chung. 2004. “Pathways to global city formation: a view from the developmental city-state of Singapore.” Review of International Political Economy 11(3), 489–521.Google Scholar
Ong, Weichong. 2015. Malaysia's Defeat of Armed Communism: The Second Emergency, 1968–1989. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ortmann, Stephan. 2012. “The ‘Beijing consensus’ and the ‘Singapore model’: unmasking the myth of an alternative authoritarian state-capitalist model.” Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies 10(4), 337–359.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ortmann, Stephan, and Thompson, Mark. 2014. “China's obsession with Singapore: learning authoritarian modernity.” The Pacific Review 27(3), 433–455.Google Scholar
Peck, Jamie. 2011. “Geographies of policy: from transfer-diffusion to mobility-mutation.” Progress in Human Geography 35(6), 773–797.Google Scholar
Peck, Jamie, and Theodore, Nik. 2012. “Follow the policy: a distended case approach.” Environment and Planning A 44(1), 21–30.Google Scholar
Pereira, Alexius. 2007. “Transnational state entrepreneurship? Assessing Singapore's Suzhou Industrial Park project (1994–2004).” Asia Pacific Viewpoint 48(3), 287–298.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pow, Choon Piew, and Neo, Harvey. 2013. “Seeing red over green: contesting urban sustainabilities in China.” Urban Studies 50(11), 2256–74.Google Scholar
Prince, Russell. 2012. “Policy transfer, consultants and the geographies of governance.” Progress in Human Geography 36(2), 188–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rajaratnam, S. 1977. “Speech at the opening session of the Tenth ASEAN Ministerial Meeting,” http://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/html/etc/content/footnote4.pdf. Accessed 20 September 2016.Google Scholar
Ramakrishna, Kumar. 2002. Emergency Propaganda: The Winning of Malayan Hearts and Minds, 1948–1958. Surrey: Curzon Press.Google Scholar
Rapoport, Elizabeth. 2014. “Utopian visions and real estate dreams: the eco-city past, present and future.” Geography Compass 8(2), 137–149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rose, Richard. 1991. “What is lesson drawing?” Journal of Public Policy 11(1), 3–30.Google Scholar
Shambaugh, David. 2008. China's Communist Party: Atrophy and Adaptation. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Shanghai Municipal People's Procuratorate. 2003. Shicheng fazhi guan'gan (Perspectives on rule of law in Singapore). Shanghai: Shanghai Municipal People's Procuratorate Political Department.Google Scholar
Shirk, Susan. 1993. The Political Logic of Economic Reform in China. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singapore Ministry of Culture. 1965. “Report on Mr. Lee Kuan Yew's speech at the 4th anniversary celebrations of the Delta Community Centre on Sunday, 30 May,” http://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/data/pdfdoc/lky19650530b.pdf. Accessed 20 September 2016.Google Scholar
Stockwell, Anthony. 1993. “A widespread and long-concocted plot to overthrow government in Malaya? The origins of the Malayan emergency.” The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 21(3), 66–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stockwell, Anthony. 2006. “Chin Peng and the struggle for Malaya.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland 16(03), 279–297.Google Scholar
Stone, D. 2003. “Transnational transfer agents and global networks in the ‘internationalisation’ of policy,” http://www.tulane.edu/~dnelson/PolTransConv/Stone.pdf. Accessed 10 January 2015.Google Scholar
Tan, See Seng. 2009. “Riding the Chinese: Singapore's pragmatic relationship with China.” In Tsunekawa, Jun (ed.), The Rise of China: Responses from Southeast Asia and Japan. Tokyo: National Institute for Defense Studies, 21–46.Google Scholar
Temenos, Cristina, and McCann, Eugene. 2013. “Geographies of policy mobilities.” Geography Compass 7(5), 344–357.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teng, Su Ching. 1998. “The mountains are high and the emperor is far away: developing the Suzhou Industrial Park in China.” Case Study C9-98-1009.0, Public Policy Programme, National University of Singapore.Google Scholar
To, Lee Lai. 1981. “Deng Xiaoping's ASEAN tour: a perspective on Sino-Southeast Asian relations.” Contemporary Southeast Asia 3(1), 58–75.Google Scholar
Tu, Wei-ming. 2008. “The rise of industrial East Asia: the role of Confucian values.” The Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies 4(1), 81–97.Google Scholar
van der Kroef, Justus. 1964. “Nanyang University and the dilemmas of overseas Chinese education.” The China Quarterly 20, 96–127.Google Scholar
van der Kroef, Justus. 1967. Communism in Malaysia and Singapore: A Contemporary Survey. The Hague: Martin Nijhoff.Google Scholar
Wang, Gungwu. 1970. “Chinese politics in Malaya.” The China Quarterly 43, 1–30.Google Scholar
Wang, Gungwu, and Ong, Weichong (eds.). 2009. Voice of Malayan Revolution: The CPM Radio War against Singapore and Malaysia, 1969–1981. Singapore: Select Books.Google Scholar
Wang, Zhiying, and Chao, Ren. 2008. “Dui Xinjiapo shehui baozhang zhidu de pingjia yu jiejian” (Evaluating and learning from Singapore's social welfare institution). Social Sciences Journal of Colleges of Shanxi 19(12), 30–33.Google Scholar
Wu, Yuanhua. 2014. Xinjiapo liangzhi zhidao (The Path of Benevolent Governance in Singapore). Beijing: China Social Sciences Press.Google Scholar
Yang, Jianxue. 2009. “Xinjiapo fazhi moshi chutan” (Preliminary exploration of Singapore's rule-of-law model). Around Southeast Asia 6, 29–32.Google Scholar
Yang, Mu, and Lye, Liang Fook. 2009. “Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City: features of a model of sustainable living.” In Saw, Swee-Hock and Wong, John (eds.), Regional Economic Development in China. Singapore: ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, 235–259.Google Scholar
Yao, Souchou. 2008. “All quiet on Jurong Road: Nanyang University and radical vision in Singapore.” In Trocki, Carl and Barr, Michael (eds.), Paths Not Taken: Political Pluralism in Post-war Singapore. Singapore: NUS Press, 170–187.Google Scholar
Yu, Hong. 2015. Chinese Regions in Change: Industrial Upgrading and Regional Development Strategies. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Yu, Wenxuan, Rubin, Marilyn and Wu, Wei. 2012. “An executive MPA program for China: lessons from the field.” Journal of Public Affairs Education 18(3), 545–564.Google Scholar
Zahari, Said. 2007. The Long Nightmare: My 17 Years as a Political Prisoner. Kuala Lumpur: Utusan Publications.Google Scholar
Zhang, Jun. 2012. “From Hong Kong's capitalist fundamentals to Singapore's authoritarian governance: the policy mobility of neo-liberalising Shenzhen, China.” Urban Studies 49(13), 2853–71.Google Scholar
Zheng, Yongnian, and Wong, John (eds.). 2013. Goh Keng Swee on China: Selected Essays. Singapore: World Scientific.Google Scholar