Singapore DPM Lawrence Wong to visit China from Dec 5 to 8, co-chair top-level bilateral meeting

BEIJING: Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on Tuesday (Dec 5) began a four-day official visit to China where he is set to co-chair an annual apex bilateral meeting for the first time.

During his trip, Mr Wong will also call on Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Beijing and visit the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City, which marks its 15th anniversary this year, said the Prime Minister’s Office in a statement on Tuesday.

Bilateral ties between Singapore and China were upgraded after a meeting in March between Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing.

Mr Wong last visited China in May. He met Premier Li then and took over as co-chair of the Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC) – the highest-level annual forum between the two nations – from Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat.

The JCBC reviews the substantive collaboration between Singapore and China and charts the direction of cooperation.

Mr Wong will co-chair the 19th JCBC meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang in Tianjin on Dec 7.

At the last JCBC meeting in November 2022, Singapore and China signed 19 agreements – the most in recent years – that covered areas like e-commerce, tourism exchanges, green development and green finance.

Mr Wong and Vice Premier Ding will also co-chair the 24th China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park Joint Steering Council (JSC), the 15th Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City JSC, and the 7th China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Cooperation JSC.

These JSCs review the progress of and discuss further cooperation on the three flagship government-to-government projects.

On top of that, Mr Wong will have a bilateral meeting with Vice Premier Ding.

While in Beijing, Mr Wong – who is also Singapore’s Finance Minister – will have separate meetings with Premier Li, Vice Premier He Lifeng and Minister of Finance Lan Fo’an. He will meet Singaporeans there as well.

Vice Premier He was recently named as head of the office of the Central Financial Commission, which is responsible for running the day-to-day affairs of China's new financial watchdog.

During his trip, Mr Wong will be accompanied by several members of Singapore's Cabinet and political officer holders, as well as senior officials from various ministries and agencies.

These include Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong, Education Minister Chan Chun Sing, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung, Minister for Communications and Information and Second Minister for Home Affairs Josephine Teo, National Development Minister Desmond Lee, Acting Minister for Transport and Senior Minister of State for Finance Chee Hong Tat, and Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment and Transport Amy Khor.

This will be Mr Wong’s first bilateral trip since Prime Minister Lee announced more concrete leadership succession plans about a month ago.

Mr Lee said he intends to hand over leadership to Mr Wong before the next General Election, which has to be called by November 2025, and by Nov 21 next year “if all goes well”.