VZCZCXRO3757
PP RUEHCHI RUEHCN RUEHDT RUEHGH RUEHHM RUEHNH RUEHVC
DE RUEHGP #1138/01 3350849
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 010849Z DEC 09
FM AMEMBASSY SINGAPORE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7468
INFO RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE
RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RUEHC/DEPT OF INTERIOR WASHDC
RHHMUNA/HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC

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