The ‘Singapore Fever’ in China: policy mobility and mutation

The ‘Singapore Model’ has constituted the only second explicit attempt by the Communist Party of China (CPC) to learn from a foreign country following Mao Zedong’s pledge to contour ‘China’s tomorrow’ on the Soviet Union experience during the early 1950s. This paper critically evaluates policy trans...

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Main Authors: Lim, Kean Fan, Horesh, Niv
Format: Article
Published: Cambridge University Press 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32693/
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author Lim, Kean Fan
Horesh, Niv
author_facet Lim, Kean Fan
Horesh, Niv
author_sort Lim, Kean Fan
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description The ‘Singapore Model’ has constituted the only second explicit attempt by the Communist Party of China (CPC) to learn from a foreign country following Mao Zedong’s pledge to contour ‘China’s tomorrow’ on the Soviet Union experience during the early 1950s. This paper critically evaluates policy transfers from Singapore to China in the post-Mao era. It re-examines how this Sino-Singaporean regulatory engagement came about historically following Deng Xiaoping’s visit to Singapore in 1978, and offers a careful re-reading of the degree to which actual policy borrowing by China could transcend different state ideologies, abstract ideas and subjective attitudes. Particular focus is placed on the effects of CPC cadre training in Singapore universities and policy mutation within two government-to-government projects, namely the Suzhou Industrial Park and the Tianjin Eco-City. The paper concludes that the ‘Singapore Model’, as applied in post-Mao China, casts institutional reforms as an open-ended process of policy experimentation and adaptation that is fraught with tension and resistance.
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spelling nottingham-326932020-05-04T18:23:54Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32693/ The ‘Singapore Fever’ in China: policy mobility and mutation Lim, Kean Fan Horesh, Niv The ‘Singapore Model’ has constituted the only second explicit attempt by the Communist Party of China (CPC) to learn from a foreign country following Mao Zedong’s pledge to contour ‘China’s tomorrow’ on the Soviet Union experience during the early 1950s. This paper critically evaluates policy transfers from Singapore to China in the post-Mao era. It re-examines how this Sino-Singaporean regulatory engagement came about historically following Deng Xiaoping’s visit to Singapore in 1978, and offers a careful re-reading of the degree to which actual policy borrowing by China could transcend different state ideologies, abstract ideas and subjective attitudes. Particular focus is placed on the effects of CPC cadre training in Singapore universities and policy mutation within two government-to-government projects, namely the Suzhou Industrial Park and the Tianjin Eco-City. The paper concludes that the ‘Singapore Model’, as applied in post-Mao China, casts institutional reforms as an open-ended process of policy experimentation and adaptation that is fraught with tension and resistance. Cambridge University Press 2016-12-30 Article PeerReviewed Lim, Kean Fan and Horesh, Niv (2016) The ‘Singapore Fever’ in China: policy mobility and mutation. China Quarterly, 228 . pp. 992-1017. ISSN 0305-7410 China ; Singapore ; lesson drawing ; policy transfer ; policy mutation https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/china-quarterly/article/singapore-fever-in-china-policy-mobility-and-mutation/9CC462CC154D1BEEFD456E0DCF6D3941 doi:10.1017/S0305741016001120 doi:10.1017/S0305741016001120
spellingShingle China ; Singapore ; lesson drawing ; policy transfer ; policy mutation
Lim, Kean Fan
Horesh, Niv
The ‘Singapore Fever’ in China: policy mobility and mutation
title The ‘Singapore Fever’ in China: policy mobility and mutation
title_full The ‘Singapore Fever’ in China: policy mobility and mutation
title_fullStr The ‘Singapore Fever’ in China: policy mobility and mutation
title_full_unstemmed The ‘Singapore Fever’ in China: policy mobility and mutation
title_short The ‘Singapore Fever’ in China: policy mobility and mutation
title_sort ‘singapore fever’ in china: policy mobility and mutation
topic China ; Singapore ; lesson drawing ; policy transfer ; policy mutation
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32693/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32693/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32693/