Notes from the underground...

I’m often asked what my favorite posting was from my years as a middling diplomat.? My answer is always the same: the one where nobody wanted to kill me.?To be fair, I don’t think I’m very high on anyone’s target list (I hope), but American officials are at risk in many countries of the world, simply because we are American officials.??

So I’m easy to please, for certain. But when I was offered a chance to serve in Singapore back in 2019, I had to pinch myself.? For those of you who haven’t been or don’t know, just imagine if Disney ran an entire country.? Would it be the happiest place on earth?? Probably not, but they sure would try.? That is Singapore.? Everything is nice, everything is clean, everything is safe, and everything is expensive. I loved every minute of our time there and was able to get to know so many people that were so much smarter than me.? My wife even became a semi-professional mahjong player, but that is a story for another time.

Beyond the chewing gum ban, perhaps the one Singaporean most widely known in the world of international affairs is Lee Kuan Yew.? (Pictured above with you know who.)? LKY, as he is known by most in Singapore, was and remains in the pantheon of great leaders of the 20th century.? Admired and respected by virtually every world leader of his era, LKY was far from perfect, but he was the right man, at the right time, with the right approach for a tiny island nation with virtually no natural resources. His book "From Third World to First" should be required reading for anyone new to the Asia beat.??

One of the most unique things about Singapore is that more than 70 percent of its population is ethnically Chinese.? Like many Americans, Singaporeans of Chinese-origin are very proud of their heritage, but I can tell you that not many want to move back to Beijing or Hainan, or even Shanghai.? They have a pretty good thing going on their little red dot, and they know it.? But, it also means that Singapore is uniquely positioned in its bilateral relationship with China.

So it was with great interest last week when we learned that Bytedance -- which moved its global HQ to Singapore a few years back in an attempt at "Singapore washing" -- would ask its employees to begin paying income tax not only in Singapore, but in mainland China as well.??

Excuse me? The FT highlighted how the move was really only the latest in a series of efforts by Beijing to collect revenue from wealthy Chinese expats and workers abroad.? Now, one does not need to engage in any complicated probability modeling or regression analysis to understand why they are doing it.

They need the money.???

Perhaps it is to pay for the fact that they are building a new state of the art new military headquarters ten times the size of the Pentagon.? Nothing to see here folks.

In his last book, released shortly before his death, LKY offered some "Hard Truths to Keep Singapore Going".? I can’t be the only one who wishes he was still around to offer some of the same advice to Xi Xingping.