Chapter 3, written by Sarah Y Tong, is basically the spreadsheet chapter. Tons of tables, percentages, growth rates. But behind all those numbers is a pretty wild story: two countries that didn’t even officially recognize each other kept trading anyway, for decades, because money talks louder than politics.
Chapter 2 is all about one man: Lee Kuan Yew. Written by Zheng Yongnian and Lim Wen Xin, it makes a strong case that Singapore’s special relationship with China was built on Lee’s personal connections with five generations of Chinese leaders, from Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping, and the fact that China genuinely wanted to learn from Singapore’s success.
Chapter 1 is by John Wong and Lye Liang Fook, and it tries to do something ambitious: cover the entire arc of Singapore-China relations in one chapter. Centuries of trade, Cold War politics, panda diplomacy, military exercises, and a whole web of institutional frameworks. The through-line is clear: pragmatism made this relationship work, and institutions are what will keep it going.
The editors, Zheng Yongnian and Lye Liang Fook, start with something refreshingly honest. They admit the project scared them. World Scientific Publishing asked them to write a book commemorating 50 years of Singapore-China relations, and they thought: huge topic, not much time.
So I picked up this book called Singapore-China Relations: 50 Years, edited by Zheng Yongnian and Lye Liang Fook. It’s part of a whole series about Singapore’s first 50 years as a nation. And honestly, the story of how Singapore and China built their relationship is way more interesting than you’d expect.
This is the final post in my series retelling Diary of a Very Bad Year. Here’s the epilogue and my closing thoughts.
This is part of my series retelling Diary of a Very Bad Year. Today we’re covering Chapter IX, Part 2 - the final interview.
This is part of my series retelling Diary of a Very Bad Year. Today we’re covering Chapter IX, Part 1. The chapter was too long for one post so I split it in two.
This is part of my series retelling Diary of a Very Bad Year. Today we’re covering Chapter VIII.
It’s July 2, 2009. The Dow sits at 8,280. Unemployment is at 9.5%. And HFM is doing something he hasn’t done in a decade. He’s going on vacation. A real one.
This is part of my series retelling Diary of a Very Bad Year. Today we’re covering Chapter VII.
It’s May 2009. The Dow is at 8,504. Unemployment is 9.4 percent. Over 342,000 homes got foreclosed that month. But the worst of the panic? That part seems to be over.