Worldcrunch.com, 20 May 2011
After the Cold War, the political systems of Asian countries changed one by one. Singapore, which the West had viewed both civilized and modern, gradually showed its “uncivilized nature,” by instituting, for example, news censorship, a patriarchal and nepotistic system, authoritarian rule, a disguised hereditary system and severe laws. These changes attracted criticism from the West. To defend himself, Lee Kuan Yew used “differences between the East and West” and dusty old Confucianist traditions as a kind of magic wand.
Yet when China grew in strength, it made Lee Kuan Yew and his government nervous. Fearing China might lay claim to Singapore as an ancestral homeland, Lee Kuan Yew started to emphasize the country’s non-Chinese characteristics. He even hinted that Singapore has a gatekeeper role in suppressing Chinese expansionism in South East Asia. In this case his defense strategy was to attack and oppose Chinese influence. Full story