Lee Hsien Loong on ‘Singapore’s calculations’ in foreign policy and US fears over Taiwan conflict

The ex-prime minister was responding to a question at a US forum about whether China would make a move on Taiwan over the next four years

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Then-US president Donald Trump shakes hands with then-Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at a meeting in New York in 2019. Photo: AFP

Published: 6:17pm, 13 Nov 2024Updated: 5:43pm, 14 Nov 2024

Singapore’s former prime minister Lee Hsien Loong has played down fears of a conflict over Taiwan, pointing out that the “four-year horizon” for the next US presidency under Donald Trump is too short to predict security dynamics.

Lee, now a senior minister in the city state, was responding to a question at a forum in the United States. He was asked for his views on whether mainland China would be emboldened to make a move on Taiwan during Trump’s second term.

“I do not know how it will evolve in the next four years but this is a dynamic which has longer than a four-year horizon,” he said during a question and answer segment at the Harvard University’s John F Kennedy School of Government on Tuesday.

Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary. Most countries, including the US, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but Washington is opposed to any attempt to take the self-governed island by force and is committed to supplying it with weapons.

Lee voiced scepticism over predictions that major security upheavals over Taiwan would occur in the next US presidential term. “I do not believe that the views which are sometimes expressed to say 2028, or some year like that, is crucial and therefore something is about to happen in the next term of the US government.”

His remarks come after Trump won the US presidential election, sparking concerns over Washington’s security commitment to Taiwan.