Singapore Turns Colonial Airstrip Into Hub for Jet Engine Makers

[Aepsilons]

I agree with you on this point.

I believe Meritocracy is one of the variables besides "hard working", "long term orientation", and "low uncertainty avoidance" (referring to Geert Hofstede) that support advancement.

But assuming that people vested to govern do corruption, then the nation could be doomed as well.

Bell believes that what makes the China model unique is its blend of meritocracy at the central level of government and democracy at the local level.
Our democracy can learn from China's meritocracy

Yes, in fact, by focusing and emphasizing on central planning and adopting that model to the meritocracy model that had already been active in China, you are able to see transgeneration empowerment; you have seen the rise of the landed elites (landlordism) as well as the rise of the peasants and attaining social empowerment through the meritocratic educational system that had been endorsed by the CPC.

For much of Chinese imperial history, public officials were selected first by examination and then by performance evaluations at lower levels of government. The fascinating thing is that this system has been reestablished in form over the past 30 years in China.

There’s a need to institutionalize a system to select and promote leaders with superior qualities. It’s a good case for democracy at the lower level, and for meritocracy up top — and in between, we don’t exactly know what’s going to work, so there should be allowances for lots of experimentation and testing for different ways for selecting and promoting political leaders. Democracy on the bottom, experimentation in the middle, and meritocracy on top — that’s a pretty good way of thinking about how to govern a large country, and I argue that it fits Chinese political culture pretty well. There was a terrible experiment with populism during the Cultural Revolution, so there’s a strong case to reestablish this kind of political meritocracy.

In context to Singapore, well it is a blend of political meritocracy and democracy. In that sense, China is in a better position to build up a long-lasting political meritocracy. The whole political system is backed up by a strong sense of nationalism -- more precisely, the sense of belonging to a long and glorious civilization. And there is no worry about a "freak" electoral result that would empower rulers without meritocratic credentials.

What China can learn from Singapore, however, is the need to transition to a more open and compassionate society.


@TaiShang @Arryn @Shotgunner51 --- brothers, what's your input?

In long ancient history, for example, every a Confucian elite have chance to marry emperor's daughter. They are called Dragon's son in law, who are most front rank scholar through national exam. We are very proud of this experience in history. Those elites' family background could be farmer, trader, craftsman, teacher, official, every social class.
Since Sui (581-618)and Tang dynasty (618-907), China started to select officials through the imperial examination (The Civil Service Examination System). The content of examination are mainly Confucianism classics.
Those Confucian elite can enter into imperial' top political level, such as central govt's premier minister, ministers and province governors, county governor.

Absolutely poignant ! As far back as almost 2 millenia ago, China had already employed the 科舉 [Imperial Civil Administration Examination].

Candidates gathering around the wall where the results are posted. This announcement was known as "releasing the roll" (放榜)

 

[jammersat]

well they all wanna colonize something in their own backyard , the south china sea

 

[Aepsilons]

@greenwood ---- Imperial Japan, too, had employed an Imperial Civil Service Examination as early as the 4th century CE. We refer to it is ~ 科挙. It is based on the Han Dynasty's form.

Koreans, too, had their version of it known as ~ 과거 ~.

 

[dy1022]

Chinese rules, be it in Mainland, Singapore, Taiwan, HK,Macau, etc...

 

[greenwood]

@greenwood ---- Imperial Japan, too, had employed an Imperial Civil Service Examination as early as the 4th century CE. We refer to it is ~ 科挙. It is based on the Han Dynasty's form.

Koreans, too, had their version of it known as ~ 과거 ~.

Han dynasty don't completely implement Civil Service Examination. Han dynasty had lots of wars with north and west nomad, so military exploit hold many top political seats. Han dynasty carry out both examination and recommendation confirming civil service officials. Sui, Tang and afterwards, examination was institutionalized and recommendation system was gradually faded.

 

[jhungary]

That's why i LoL you @Nihonjin1051 because it's clearly you are know nothing about the Singaporean and their point of view

The Singapore and Singaporean i know is never and clearly never attributed their success story as confucian model or whatsoever racist PoV you clearly indicated here trying to licks the Chinese Mainland. The nation's core principles are meritocracy, multiculturalism and secularism. It is noted for its effective, pragmatic and incorrupt governance and civil service, which together with its rapid development policies, is widely cited as the "Singapore model". Yes they will uphold their development model as the thing in which had bring their City State into a different stages compared to other countries in this world. If they ever attributed their success story toward Hakka or any group races affiliated efforts they will only inciting social unrest from the rest and will undermine their efforts and taint their image globally.

Well before you sprouting the Hakka things i will gently reminded you, most of the Chinese in Singapore came from the southeastern coast of China in the provinces of Fujian, Guangdong and Hainan. The Hoklo, Teochew, and Cantonese together form more than three-quarters of the Chinese population. The likes of Hakka and Hainanese is forming the rest. And the Chinese descent Singaporean will generally pissed off if you put them in the same basket as the Mainland Chinese, there is a lot of differences between the Singaporean Chinese and mainland Chinese in terms of mindset, culture, and languages. While mainland Chinese are largely Sino-centric in their outlook of the world, Singaporean Chinese are educated in English medium schools (but also are taught the Chinese language) and are exposed to western influences. As such, the local Singaporean Chinese culture is a blend and mix of southern Chinese culture, local Singaporean culture (with various influences from cultures of other ethnicity) and western culture.

There are also some differences in the Singaporean Chinese culture compared to that of China. Some traditional Chinese religious and folks custom are preserved by the Chinese community in Singapore, but are no longer practised or seen in China after the Cultural Revolution.


--------------------------------

The Singapore success story can actually contribute to the Chinese. But not the way our friend Nihonjin thinks.

The success of Singapore build based on the Chinese threat model created by the Chinese and to some extend, Chinese communism themselves. For that is the motivation of the Singaporean rise.

During 1948-1990, there is a real chance on red scare will touch Singapore, especially with its predominant Chinese population (Russian is an minority in Singapore, if there are any) After the communist scare in Malay (In the form of Malaya Emergency) Singapore is basically the core faction to prevent their own country to fall in line with communist. Where by doing so, segregated the Chinese Singaporean and the rest of the population. It is this early scare have push the Singaporean into a more Western model which would allow free market development at the same time with restricted political belief.

Most Chinese in Singapore are not practice of Taoism nor Confucianism, rather most Chinese are Buddhist in religion, the country of Singapore top two religion is Buddhist (Nearly 40% of all Singaporean) and Christianity (Nearly 20% of all Singaporean).

However, after the communist fall, the next thing driving the Singapore development is the Chinese threat and what the world have done in order to contain it. While the Communist ideal is long gone, the Chinese have always been single-handedly credited with the current political structure of Singapore, which is western orientated. The west, particularly the US have taking a stride of interest in Singapore because of the Asia pivot, and thus invested heavily in Singapore political and economic sectors. Resulting a closer cooperation to US company and US government. The Singaporean themselves also feel threaten by the economic power Chinese process. And they were desperately trying to find a Counter Balance to the Chinese Market, in comes the American.

It's not hard to see where the Singaporean political preference lies. But in all, almost all of the Singapore Growth in the last 80 years or so were contributed heavily by the Chinese, mostly because of their threat to the region.

Here are some good article detailing how communism and Mainland Chinese (Not Singaporean Chinese) present as a threat to Singapore political and economical model.

The Communist Threat to Singapore

Singapore - The Communist Threat, 1945-63

SIA's China dominance under threat as Chinese carriers boost capacity - Yahoo Singapore Finance

Singapore’s chemical ambitions face Chinese threat | AJOT.COM

 

[greenwood]

@greenwood ---- Imperial Japan, too, had employed an Imperial Civil Service Examination as early as the 4th century CE. We refer to it is ~ 科挙. It is based on the Han Dynasty's form.

Koreans, too, had their version of it known as ~ 과거 ~.

I wasn't know Japan employed an Imperial Civil Service Examination too. Gladly know the news.

 

[Aepsilons]

I wasn't know Japan employed an Imperial Civil Service Examination too. Gladly know the news.

Yes , tho it was a mixture of hereditary title holders and also civil society. Due in part that Japan was periodically divided between Daimyos who challenged central authority throughout the chances of Bakufu-- this led to a local autonomy form of civil administration exam up to until the Heian Period. By the time the Tokugawa Bakufu took power , we had implemented the Ming Dynasty 's version.

This continues up to until the Meiji Restoration. But that culture of civil exam and meritocracy culture exists to this day. It has a clear progenitor ; which many Japanese may or may not necessarily recognize openly verbally, but implicitly.

Han dynasty don't completely implement Civil Service Examination. Han dynasty had lots of wars with north and west nomad, so military exploit hold many top political seats. Han dynasty carry out both examination and recommendation confirming civil service officials. Sui, Tang and afterwards, examination was institutionalized and recommendation system was gradually faded.

Ah yes you're right ; the Sui Dynasty. Thanks for the correction.

 

[greenwood]

Yes, in fact, by focusing and emphasizing on central planning and adopting that model to the meritocracy model that had already been active in China, you are able to see transgeneration empowerment; you have seen the rise of the landed elites (landlordism) as well as the rise of the peasants and attaining social empowerment through the meritocratic educational system that had been endorsed by the CPC.

For much of Chinese imperial history, public officials were selected first by examination and then by performance evaluations at lower levels of government. The fascinating thing is that this system has been reestablished in form over the past 30 years in China.

There’s a need to institutionalize a system to select and promote leaders with superior qualities. It’s a good case for democracy at the lower level, and for meritocracy up top — and in between, we don’t exactly know what’s going to work, so there should be allowances for lots of experimentation and testing for different ways for selecting and promoting political leaders. Democracy on the bottom, experimentation in the middle, and meritocracy on top — that’s a pretty good way of thinking about how to govern a large country, and I argue that it fits Chinese political culture pretty well. There was a terrible experiment with populism during the Cultural Revolution, so there’s a strong case to reestablish this kind of political meritocracy.

In context to Singapore, well it is a blend of political meritocracy and democracy. In that sense, China is in a better position to build up a long-lasting political meritocracy. The whole political system is backed up by a strong sense of nationalism -- more precisely, the sense of belonging to a long and glorious civilization. And there is no worry about a "freak" electoral result that would empower rulers without meritocratic credentials.

What China can learn from Singapore, however, is the need to transition to a more open and compassionate society.


@TaiShang @Arryn @Shotgunner51 --- brothers, what's your input?



Absolutely poignant ! As far back as almost 2 millenia ago, China had already employed the 科舉 [Imperial Civil Administration Examination].

Candidates gathering around the wall where the results are posted. This announcement was known as "releasing the roll" (放榜)

Yes, some likes present official exam. China didn't include science, math subjects, in the exam it is regret. They had political comment subject, regretly candidates can't comment on incumbent emperor, government and dynasty, they comment on previous dynasty. And the official exam system in Ming, Qing badly impeded China's industrial and social reform.

The Singapore success story can actually contribute to the Chinese. But not the way our friend Nihonjin thinks.

The success of Singapore build based on the Chinese threat model created by the Chinese and to some extend, Chinese communism themselves. For that is the motivation of the Singaporean rise.

During 1948-1990, there is a real chance on red scare will touch Singapore, especially with its predominant Chinese population (Russian is an minority in Singapore, if there are any) After the communist scare in Malay (In the form of Malaya Emergency) Singapore is basically the core faction to prevent their own country to fall in line with communist. Where by doing so, segregated the Chinese Singaporean and the rest of the population. It is this early scare have push the Singaporean into a more Western model which would allow free market development at the same time with restricted political belief.

Most Chinese in Singapore are not practice of Taoism nor Confucianism, rather most Chinese are Buddhist in religion, the country of Singapore top two religion is Buddhist (Nearly 40% of all Singaporean) and Christianity (Nearly 20% of all Singaporean).

However, after the communist fall, the next thing driving the Singapore development is the Chinese threat and what the world have done in order to contain it. While the Communist ideal is long gone, the Chinese have always been single-handedly credited with the current political structure of Singapore, which is western orientated. The west, particularly the US have taking a stride of interest in Singapore because of the Asia pivot, and thus invested heavily in Singapore political and economic sectors. Resulting a closer cooperation to US company and US government. The Singaporean themselves also feel threaten by the economic power Chinese process. And they were desperately trying to find a Counter Balance to the Chinese Market, in comes the American.

It's not hard to see where the Singaporean political preference lies. But in all, almost all of the Singapore Growth in the last 80 years or so were contributed heavily by the Chinese, mostly because of their threat to the region.

Here are some good article detailing how communism and Mainland Chinese (Not Singaporean Chinese) present as a threat to Singapore political and economical model.

The Communist Threat to Singapore

Singapore - The Communist Threat, 1945-63

SIA's China dominance under threat as Chinese carriers boost capacity - Yahoo Singapore Finance

Singapore’s chemical ambitions face Chinese threat | AJOT.COM

Agreed. Singapore is lucky. It has good neighbors, perfect location, far away cold war battlefield, world trade rising period, and so on.

 

[Aepsilons]

Agreed. Singapore is lucky

Really Lah!

 

[Pangu]

Singaporean Chinese clearly subscribe to Confusion values. Just that their do not articulate it, especially since English is lingua franca between the different races & also as business language. The Confusion values are internalized & very much the fabric of Chinese families here, but westernized families, particularly of Christian faith deviate from it.

As to the mixed or "rojak" culture here, it exist on the interracial context, like mixing Hokkian + Malay lingo into the English, which they term "Singlish." However, do not mistake that this linguistic mixture is practiced within the families itself. All race, be it Chinese, Malay or Indians, resist & uphold their racial uniqueness without much "contamination" by each other. Just enter their respective homes & you'll see what I mean.

As for Singaporean Chinese being anti-mainlanders, it exist too within the context of being paranoid about foreign competition. They too equally dislike Pinoys, Bangla, etc. It is understandable but compared to 7 years ago, things are improving very well. between the original southern Chinese who build Singapore, & the present influx of northern & Sichuanese Chinese. If you go into the HDB heartland, you will find many shops & biz have sprung up, where the locals have more interaction with us, besides the crazy & noisy Chinatown, which incidentally, have seen an increase of many northern Chinese restaurants. All in all, I would say things are improving from my observation.

And yes, SG is very lucky, & a unique social experiment within the resource-less, & tiny landmass. Their strength is in high tech. sub-components & social/infrastructure planning & management, along with a healthy finance, ship/oil rig building & petrol-chemical industry.

Not too shabby I'd say.

 

[Shotgunner51]

Yes, in fact, by focusing and emphasizing on central planning and adopting that model to the meritocracy model that had already been active in China, you are able to see transgeneration empowerment; you have seen the rise of the landed elites (landlordism) as well as the rise of the peasants and attaining social empowerment through the meritocratic educational system that had been endorsed by the CPC.

For much of Chinese imperial history, public officials were selected first by examination and then by performance evaluations at lower levels of government. The fascinating thing is that this system has been reestablished in form over the past 30 years in China.

There’s a need to institutionalize a system to select and promote leaders with superior qualities. It’s a good case for democracy at the lower level, and for meritocracy up top — and in between, we don’t exactly know what’s going to work, so there should be allowances for lots of experimentation and testing for different ways for selecting and promoting political leaders. Democracy on the bottom, experimentation in the middle, and meritocracy on top — that’s a pretty good way of thinking about how to govern a large country, and I argue that it fits Chinese political culture pretty well. There was a terrible experiment with populism during the Cultural Revolution, so there’s a strong case to reestablish this kind of political meritocracy.

In context to Singapore, well it is a blend of political meritocracy and democracy. In that sense, China is in a better position to build up a long-lasting political meritocracy. The whole political system is backed up by a strong sense of nationalism -- more precisely, the sense of belonging to a long and glorious civilization. And there is no worry about a "freak" electoral result that would empower rulers without meritocratic credentials.

What China can learn from Singapore, however, is the need to transition to a more open and compassionate society.


@TaiShang @Arryn @Shotgunner51 --- brothers, what's your input?



Absolutely poignant ! As far back as almost 2 millenia ago, China had already employed the 科舉 [Imperial Civil Administration Examination].

Candidates gathering around the wall where the results are posted. This announcement was known as "releasing the roll" (放榜)

Thanks for tagging la!

Singapore's achievements are stunning, I have mentioned some here on PDF, say:

• 80% of citizens live in public housing.
• One of the richest population in the world with 10.7% households (4th highest in the world, after Switzerland, Bahrain and Qatar) own more than US$1M of financial wealth. BCG: $$$ Millionaires In China Increased By 49% YOY
  
• A creditor nation (rich nation), net external assets ranking 8th highest (after Japan, Germany, China Mainand, HK, Taiwan, Norway, Switzerland) in the world, 1st highest (second to none) on per capita basis.
• Singapore has world's 6th largest (after China, UAE, Norway, KSA, Kuwait) Sovereign Welfare Funds
  
• ...

The country's stunning achievement is one reason why China send waves of delegates to learn and study their governance model, the other reason being the resemblance of culture:

• On subjects like tech-industrialization China will look at Japan/Taiwan/SK, while on subjects like government efficiency, urban planning, urban transportation (e.g. metro), financial services, public housing, etc, China studies Singapore and Hong Kong. For example the dubbed "Mayors' Program" training senior PRC officials in various Singaporean institutes.
• Singapore is the second largest FDI investor (after Hong Kong) in China Mainland, projects like Suzhou Industrial Park, Tianjin Eco-city are key tech/economic drivers for Chinese economy.
• Singapore (say Temasek, alongside with GIC from Singapore and HKMA from HK) is actively helping China to manage surplus capital, say constructing Sovereign Wealth Funds. defence.pk/threads/china-trade-surplus-reaches-137bn-for-2nd-quarter-of-2015.387969/page-2

 

[Aepsilons]

Thanks for tagging la!

Singapore's achievements are stunning, I have mentioned some here on PDF, say:

• 80% of citizens live in public housing.
• One of the richest population in the world with 10.7% households (4th highest in the world) own more than US$1M of financial wealth. BCG: $$$ Millionaires In China Increased By 49% YOY
  
• A creditor nation (rich nation), net external assets ranking 8th highest in the world, 1st highest on per capita basis.
• Singapore has world's 6th largest Sovereign Welfare Funds
• ...

The country's stunning achievement is one reason why China send waves of delegates to learn and study their governance model, the other reason being the resemblance of culture:

• On subjects like tech-industrialization China will look at Japan/Taiwan/SK, while on subjects like government efficiency, urban planning, urban transportation (e.g. metro), financial services, public housing, etc, China studies Singapore and Hong Kong. For example the dubbed "Mayors' Program" training senior PRC officials in various Singaporean institutes.
• Singapore is the second largest FDI investor (after Hong Kong) in China Mainland, projects like Suzhou Industrial Park, Tianjin Eco-city are key tech/economic drivers for Chinese economy.
• Singapore (say Temasek, alongside with GIC from Singapore and HKMA from HK) is actively helping China to manage sovereign wealth, say constructing Sovereign Wealth Funds. defence.pk/threads/china-trade-surplus-reaches-137bn-for-2nd-quarter-of-2015.387969/page-2

Thanks for the qualitative appraisal, Lah!

 

[TaiShang]

Thanks for tagging la!

Singapore's achievements are stunning, I have mentioned some here on PDF, say:

• 80% of citizens live in public housing.
• One of the richest population in the world with 10.7% households (4th highest in the world, after Switzerland, Bahrain and Qatar) own more than US$1M of financial wealth. BCG: $$$ Millionaires In China Increased By 49% YOY
  
• A creditor nation (rich nation), net external assets ranking 8th highest (after Japan, Germany, China Mainand, HK, Taiwan, Norway, Switzerland) in the world, 1st highest (second to none) on per capita basis.
• Singapore has world's 6th largest (after China, UAE, Norway, KSA, Kuwait) Sovereign Welfare Funds
  
• ...

The country's stunning achievement is one reason why China send waves of delegates to learn and study their governance model, the other reason being the resemblance of culture:

• On subjects like tech-industrialization China will look at Japan/Taiwan/SK, while on subjects like government efficiency, urban planning, urban transportation (e.g. metro), financial services, public housing, etc, China studies Singapore and Hong Kong. For example the dubbed "Mayors' Program" training senior PRC officials in various Singaporean institutes.
• Singapore is the second largest FDI investor (after Hong Kong) in China Mainland, projects like Suzhou Industrial Park, Tianjin Eco-city are key tech/economic drivers for Chinese economy.
• Singapore (say Temasek, alongside with GIC from Singapore and HKMA from HK) is actively helping China to manage surplus capital, say constructing Sovereign Wealth Funds. defence.pk/threads/china-trade-surplus-reaches-137bn-for-2nd-quarter-of-2015.387969/page-2

Excellent post!

 

[Aepsilons]

Excellent post!

Where have you been, my friend? Your absence was felt.