Are the US-Singapore-China relations structurally balanced?
Singapore is known for having strong diplomatic ties to many countries, and the government and its Ministry of Foreign Affairs have taken extensive steps to ensure that. One might think this can only be an inherently good thing – more allies means more opportunities for trade, partnership, and to help each other out in times of disaster. But there are certain problems that come with this. We can zoom in on the relationship between the US, Singapore and China. While Singapore is undoubtedly allies with the US and China (astute readers will note that the recent Terrex incident this year might have strained some ties, however, no ill intent was communicated on either side and both governments have mentioned that diplomatic ties are completely unaffected), the US and China are not on entirely easy terms. This is caused by fears of a trade war and tariffs being imposed on China by the US, and of President Trump abandoning the TPP.
As recently as February this year, Prime Minister Lee from Singapore has admitted that ‘If America, China relations become very difficult, our position becomes tougher because then we will be coerced to choose between being friends with America and being friends with China.” PM Lee is not known for making such frank admissions publicly, so it seems like it’s a serious issue.
Reasoning from a graph theory perspective, it is easy to see why there is so much tension – here there are two positive edges linking Singapore to the US and China respectively, and if the US and China edge turns negative, the triangle is not structurally balanced, and tension is bound to exist. PM Lee is anticipating an implicit force which may one day force Singapore to choose sides. Singapore will definitely continue on its policy of very active diplomacy, but it’s definitely interesting to see how such diplomacy can backfire even in the face of many strong allies.
Source:
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/28/singapore-pm-on-us-china-relationship-we-must-choose-sides.html