Kissinger praised Lee Kuan Yew in the past in talks with
China.
Prime Minister Chou: It is the conservative nature of those
Chinese.
And when the Australian Prime Minister came, he discussed
with
me the Southeast Asian countries and their establishing relations
with
China. We discussed if it would be possible to establish relations
with
Singapore. I wonder if a communiqué or public declaration that
none
of those Singapore citizens would maintain dual citizenship might
set
him at ease.
Secretary Kissinger: Would you like me to discuss this with
Lee
Kuan Yew? I think he takes me more seriously than he does
Whitlam.
Prime Minister Chou: That is, we would be willing to establish
relations
in a pattern which would set other countries at ease because
a
large percentage of the Singapore population is Chinese.
Secretary Kissinger: I will talk to him.
Prime Minister Chou: And Singapore being a free port, we
think
it would be better for them to maintain a neutral problem. The
Soviet
Union is casting a covetous eye on them.
Secretary
Kissinger: Lee Kuan Yew is primarily worried about the
organization of Communist groups.
Prime Minister
Chou: To my knowledge there is none there. There
are perhaps some leftists but to my knowledge there are no
Communist
parties in Singapore.
Secretary Kissinger: But he is not against the People’s
Republic.
He is afraid you will engage in subversive activities there.
Prime Minister Chou: We are not going to subvert them. We
haven’t even subverted Hongkong. Why would we go there. Why
give
up Hongkong at our door step to go so far. Hongkong has 4
million
while Singapore has slightly over one and a half million.
Secretary Kissinger: I will send a letter to Lee Kuan Yew.
Prime Minister Chou: He has not been so bad to us. There is
a
branch of the bank of China there.
Secretary Kissinger: He is not against you. I know him very
well.
He is one of the few leaders with whom it is worth talking. Aside
from
his having power, he has a great understanding of England.
Prime Minister
Chou: He is a very eloquent speaker. I believe he
was trained by McDonald.*
Secretary Kissinger: He was at the London School of
Economics.
Prime Minister Chou: Because McDonald had been Governor
General
of Singapore.
Secretary Kissinger: He always comes to Harvard once every
two
years.
Prime Minister Chou: You mean the son of Ramsey McDonald?
Secretary Kissinger: Lee Kuan Yew comes to Harvard and
shocks
my liberal colleagues by calling them fools. They are not used to
Socialists
calling them that.
* Malcolm McDonald, son of british PM Ramsey McDonald
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_MacDonald
............
Chou En-lai: The Soviet Union has also directly approached
Burma
about that. Slightly before General Ne Win paid a non-official
visit to
Hungary the Soviet Union approached him.
Dr. Kissinger: I didn’t know that.
Chou En-lai: He rejected it. That is why he did not go to the
Soviet
Union. He was planning to go both to Hungary and the Soviet
Union, and because of this he rejected the visit to the Soviet
Union.
And they also probably approached Razak of Malaysia too, when
he
was visiting Moscow. They probably also approached Lee Kuan
Yew
who also went to Moscow.
Dr. Kissinger: I
will see Lee Kuan Yew very soon. He is very intelligent.
Singapore is too small for his talents.
Chou En-lai: It is the problem created by Chinese blood.
[Laughter]
It is because the percentage of those of Chinese blood in
Singapore
are too numerous that makes Malaysia and Razak fear him.
Dr. Kissinger: That is why they rejected him.
Chou En-lai: Then they built Malaysia over him and around himand
isolated him in the center.
Dr. Kissinger: But still he has the most dynamic state in the
area.
Chou En-lai: But his production cannot support him. Their
domestic
production cannot support them. They rely on trade going
through their country. They rely on transit trade and now they can
only
just lease some of their small islands around them to other
countries.
We have heard that the Soviet Union . . .
Dr. Kissinger: The Soviet Union wanted to establish a naval
facility
there.
Chou En-lai: Yes, because a barren island can be used to first
build
a factory, an oil refinery, and then used to build a dock and then
used
to repair boats and so on gradually developing into a naval
facility.
Dr. Kissinger: Our information was they wanted to use some
of
the existing facilities. They wanted to lease some of the dry dock
facilities.
On a regular basis.
Chou En-lai: That would be the first step.
Dr. Kissinger: We prevented that.
Chou En-lai: They have already done that in Hong Kong.
Hong
Kong has agreed to their repairing ordinary boats but not naval
vessels.
But it takes them three months to repair one boat, so they
maintain
all around the year at least one or two naval vessels there that
have
their intelligence facilities on those boats. Well, now every day
they can
stroll around in the streets of Hong Kong. And they can also
invite
guests onto their ships. And they use those methods to serve their
intelligence
work. These are new activities on the seas which were
recently
invented since the Second World War.
Dr. Kissinger: Yes.
Chou En-lai: They also use these opportunities, use the fact
that
Hong Kong is a free port, to buy a lot of daily necessities,
especially
food, and take it back with them. And they would like to take
Singapore
the same and make it play a greater role than Hong Kong and
gradually project it into a naval base. Britain would probably
know
about that. They will tell you about it.
http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/100316.pdf
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/frus/nixon/xviii/index.htm