Singapore’s football situationship with China

How is it that a Singaporean footballer is receiving the star treatment in Shanghai, yet got scarcely any reaction or recognition in Singapore before that??

Chinese fans are flooding Hassan Sunny’s nasi padang stall and transferring money to his Douyin account. His plan to donate the funds to charity has also earned the thumbs up from President Tharman Shanmugaratnam.

Hassan’s heroics on the football pitch during the World Cup qualifiers certainly deserves applause. But it’s hard to shake off the uncomfortable feeling when many Chinese netizens are saying Hassan’s saves have helped deny Thailand and aided China in progressing to the final round of Asia’s qualifiers – as if the Singapore football team had done China a favour and was somehow working to help it advance.?

Far from it. Chinese fans must take it in the right spirit, our China correspondent Aw Cheng Wei says.?

This disturbing premise casts an unfortunate pall over Hassan. It frustrates people here sensitive to the misguided trope that Singapore is some type of hatchet boy for China, at a time of rising tensions over the superpower’s actions in the region.

From assertive Chinese action in the South China Sea to Chinese military uniforms found in a recent Filipino gambling raid sparking national security concerns, it’s little wonder regional countries are viewing China with a great deal of suspicion.

That is not to say that Singapore bends towards the West either. Amid news that the US Pentagon had run secret anti-vax campaigns in the Philippines during the pandemic, most South-east Asia countries know they have to count on themselves to safeguard their national interests.

I think we have done well on this front, ignoring what the world says about how we should conduct foreign policy or govern ourselves. Renowned political scientist Graham Allison goes one step further – he thinks Singapore has done better than the US or UK. Inspired by an interview with our US bureau, he told us that it became the inspiration for research on this piece in Foreign Affairs.

Here, I would caution getting caught up in the puffery around whether Singapore can be a model for other countries. We have our flaws. Let’s just keep working hard and do what we do best – not let dogma, praise or criticism get in the way.?

Until next week, here are my picks of the week to get yours started.

Cheers,

Suling

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