China and the “Singapore Model”: Perspectives from Mid-level Cadres and Implications for Transnational Knowledge Transfer

Abstract

Over the past three decades, China has shown tremendous interest in the “Singapore model” through its sending of tens of thousands of cadres to Singapore for executive training and graduate education. Although this phenomenon has been studied, no attention has been drawn to the perspectives of those mid-level cadres who took part in the training and what those perspectives might imply. Utilizing a unique dataset of over 1,350 mid-level cadres graduating from the “Mayors’ Class” in Singapore from 1995 to 2016 and follow-up surveys and interviews, this article intends to fill this gap. We found that the most appealing characteristics of the “Singapore model” for these mid-level officials lay in practical governance lessons and their potential transferability rather than in ideologies. This finding challenges conventional wisdom that the most plausible rationale of China's learning from Singapore is political. We also examine Xi Jinping's view of Singapore and its relevance to China's latest national agendas in building a “learning nation” and strengthening the CCP's resilience through anti-corruption and intra-party regeneration. The conclusion places the China–Singapore case within the context of the changing trend of transnational knowledge transfer in the non-Western world.

China's Role in Global Development Finance: China Challenge or Business as Usual?

“…As Ramo's () Beijing Consensus paper recognized, the China model is not uniquely associated with China itself. Interestingly, other East Asian states, and Singapore in particular, are often credited with developing the East Asian development model that China's own model draws from (Huat, ; Liu and Wang, ). Zhao () in particular outlines the ‘China model’ as a variant of the ‘East Asian model’ that consists of three core features: policy pragmatism, a strong and pro‐developmental state, and selective learning from other liberal capitalist models.…”

An emerging Asian model of governance and transnational knowledge transfer: an introduction

“…The thriving knowledge transfer among Asian countries is partly because of their geographical proximity and similar political, social and economic challenges. Liu and Wang's empirical study (Liu & Wang, 2018) on the Chinese "Mayors' Class" programme in Singapore reveals a shifting trend in transnational knowledge transfer in that increasing exchanges between countries in the broadly defined Global South has reinforced the departure from one-way flow of knowledge transfer (from the North to the South) that has dominated development discourse since World War II. To Laotians at the early 21 st century, 'China kind of symbolizes modernity' (Kurlantzick, 2007).…”

“…The -2009 financial crisis severely hit the Western world, while the world witnessed a (re-)emerging Asia of ascending global influence (Cheung, 2013;Drechsler, 2013), spearheaded by some of the 'Asian Tigers' such as Singapore and South Korea, China, and India. As a consequence, more and more developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America show their interest in the 'China model/Beijing Consensus' or the 'Singapore model' as alternative paths (Ramo 2004, Bell, 2015Lai, 2016, Liu, Lee, & Wang, 2017Zhao, 2017;Liu & Wang, 2018). For example, China has been invited to serve as development consultant for Grenada (Chan, 2017), and large number of officials from Africa and Southeast Asia were sent to China and Singapore to receive governance training (Ganapathy, 2017;Tugendhat & Alemu, 2016).…”

Authoritarian Learning in China's Civil Society Regulations: Towards a Multi-Level Framework

“…On Baidu Baike, China's state-sanctioned online dictionary, this model is glamorously defined as referring to "a country with political democracy, clean politics, civilised society, a thriving economy, a happy and harmonious people, and an excellent environment" ( , Yi ge zhengzhi minzhu, zhengfu qinglian, shehui wenming, jingji fanrong, renmin xingfu hexie, huanjing youmei guodu) (Baidu Baike 2019). The continued popularity of the Singaporean governance system has been demonstrated in a recent survey among Chinese midlevel cadres (Liu and Wang 2018). China's attempts to learn from Singapore in terms of culture and ideology (the "Asian values" debate), the use of semi-competitive elections, and, most importantly, anti-corruption policies have, however, remained largely unsuccessful to date (Thompson and Ortmann 2018).…”

“…This case study can provide important insights into authoritarian learning for several reasons. The PRC has been frequently described as a learning authoritarian system from both domestic (Florini, Lai, and Tan 2012;Heilmann 2008a;Nathan 2009;Simon 2008) and international (Song 2010;Liu and Wang 2018;Yang and Ortmann 2018;Zhang and Marsh 2015) perspectives.…”