LKY on China: Bring skills the Chinese do not have
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By Cai Haoxiang
WANT to work successfully in China? Bring with you skills the Chinese do not have, said Mr Lee Kuan Yew last night.
These can be an intimate knowledge of and links with parts of the world that matter to China, such as South-east Asia and Western countries like America, he said.
Minister Mentor Lee was responding to a question from Nanyang Technological University undergraduate Lin Wei Qi, who interned in Shanghai for six months last year and was interested to work in China again after graduating next year.
She asked: 'Other than bilingual and bicultural skills, what else do I need?'
Mr Lee replied in Mandarin that skills in language and culture would not be sufficient. For example, there is little point having Chinese-language abilities as good as those of the Chinese nationals when there is no shortage of people there with mastery in the language.
As an example of the value that Singaporeans can bring to China, he noted that at least 30 per cent of Singaporeans have had exposure to Western countries, while only 0.01 per cent of the Chinese have.
'They don't have your background. You bring something of value.'
Responding later to another question on whether Singapore should aim to develop an environment that is 'more Chinese' than today's in order to stay relevant to China, Mr Lee argued that one advantage that Singapore has over China is precisely that it is English-speaking.
This has enabled it to understand the world, making it a useful intermediary between China and the West.
For example, when former German chancellor Helmut Kohl wanted to know more about China, he would often talk to Mr Lee.
'Singapore has got to where it is by emphasising English,' he said.
While China's political leaders can speak to American leaders, they cannot do so on a more intimate basis, he said.
In any case, Mr Lee added, Singapore cannot be like China since its ethnic composition and geographical location are different from China's.
Singapore's biggest trading partners are Malaysia and the United States, he noted. China trade accounts for only a fifth of its Gross Domestic Product.
'Singapore cannot be a China. For one thing, we are in the tropics, surrounded by South-east Asia,' he said.
Earlier, asking his audience to bear with him while he switched from speaking in English to speaking in Mandarin, Mr Lee said that if his command of English was an A, his command of Chinese merited at best a C or D.
This article was first published in The Straits Times.
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Why is it that PRCs who have the same skills as the locals are encouraged to work in Singapore while Singaporeans are encouraged that they will be successful to work in China if they have skills China Chinese do not have ???? In other words, does it mean that locals are not competent as the China Chinese?
Double standard????
Bullcrap by the senile oppressive lky.
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I couldn't agree more with you!
Look at the way he treated the Chinese educated in the 60's and 70's, I can't help but shed a tear for them ...
He has single-handedly destroyed the Chinese education in Singapore they way the cultural revolution had destroyed a generation of Chinese intellectuals ...
Now that China is on the rise again he is urging all Singaporeans to capitalize on its rise.
Sigh, the Chinese educated in the 60's and 70's were born in the wrong time at the wrong place.
Were they born in Malaysia which was fighting communists at the same time like we did, they would have had a better fate ...Posted by: chinese at Tue Jan 05 01:10:39 SGT 2010The mainland Chinese will master English soon ah I tell you. MM's foresight not long-sighted enough leh.Posted by: antixiaxue at Tue Jan 05 00:47:46 SGT 2010
The Way I See It:
I agree witrh you on 1st & 2nd paragragh.
But on the same token, there is no strategic advantage to learn any SEA languages. Since many SEA people can speak their native language, English and Mandarin these days. :DPosted by: ILostMyBall at Mon Jan 04 23:13:13 SGT 2010 -
This is where I think the direction got to stop here.
Rather than focusing on "what to bring to China" But in Singapore when we should be asking.....
What should Singapore do successfully that China is unable to do.
Isn't this the wrong direction from our leaders????
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lky must think skill is as easy as cooing laksa!
he doesnt even know exactly what a dvd is when national geographic CAME TO INYTERVIEW HIM ??!!!!he dont even upgrade whats around him let alone run other people's lives!!!HE IS CARELESS YET APPEAR TO DEMAND TOTAL UNDYING OBEDIENCE FROM ALL!!
MM step down and retire....U ARE BEGINING TO SOUND LIKE AN OLD FOOL!
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so what skills does the chinese not have? tech-wise, their capacity is above that of singapore. take the iphone for example. they can pirate a version of the iphone before the original iphone is even out on the market.
if you want to talk about exposure to westerners, i think they will soon kick us out of the market. go to any city in china, and you will find many westerners out there in the streets, tourists and expats. there are much more westerners out there in china than in singapore.
also, china has a large pool of overseas citizens who can and are readily filling the gap in terms of expertise in dealing with westerners and western firms.
so what skills does the Chinese lack? other than the fact that we have a stronger currency than them, i can't think of anything else that give us an edge over them.
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what china has:
LCD tv manufacturing
plastic and steel component manufacturing
prototyping of initial components
microchip manufacturing
wafer fab manufacturing
shipyards
automobile manufacturing
handphone production lines
canned food production
computer manufacturing
wireless internet computer manufacturing
domestic and industrial equipment manufacturing
what is lky deriliously talking about putting something there that no one has???if one can put something there or anywhere...then they would have became millionaires and forgot about sporee n some stupid old geezer thats not familiar with the century he is in or last century at it even!
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and what did lky bring to china???china used him like a chewing gum and simply spit him and his gummy frends out of china.now china wants so more sweets and lollies from pap spore!
damn desperate old man!!!he himself and his entire POLITICAL system AND MILLIONS OF DOLLARS cannot make it in china AND FAILED BADLY and somemore failed theories and "bright" ideas!!!HE WANT WHAT FISH AND BREAD TO FALL DOWN FROM SKY AFTER HE CANT DO IT WITH HIS ENTIRE POLITICAL MACHINERY IN CHINA AND WITH MILLIONS OF DOLLARS AT HIS DISPOSAL???HE EXPECT US AS IN DIVIDUALS TO DO BETTER THAN HIM???THEN HIS PAY SO HIGH FOR WHAT??
where is your china and all yer suzhou park??WHATTTT HAPPENED TO IT ???IT WHAT??DO THE HOKEY POKEY AND ENDED UP IN WHICH DIMENSION OR ALTERNATE UNIVERSE OR TURNED INTO SOME OLD FART???
1 billion chinaman will laff at lky.....not as a wise and learned man but as an old loser.....dun matter if he has 1 billion bucks to his name or chariots of gold...he will still lose them here and there indirectly or directly!!
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Companies and workers need/have to be “cheaper, faster and better”.
This is the result of “cheaper, faster and better”.
视频—æ–°åŠ å�¡é¤�馆：新移民æœ�务生和本地食客起争执
http://www.nanyangpost.com/forum/sho...d.php?t=142993http://www.nanyangpost.com/forum China Mandarin Forum
http://www.youtube.com/user/alvin8228http://talkback.stomp.com.sg/forums/showthread.php?t=93610
Please listen and comment. -
LKY does not have the skills, team and money for china!
he should go watch tv and retire completely like any old man!
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GPGT: Cheaper, Better, Faster Ah Tiong Style - NEW 1 year Shanghai bridge repaired using RUBBISH
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http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchin...nt_9244905.htm
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchin...0ca4f3e91e.jpg
Waste used to fill crack in bridge
By Qian Yanfeng and Zheng Chuang (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-12-30 07:48
Comments(0) PrintMail
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Waste used to fill crack in bridge
A mixture of garbage including plastic bags and foam used to fill part of a major bridge over Shanghai's Suzhou Creek spills out of cracks on Monday. [China Daily]
Construction companies and local authorities have come under fire after a big rupture was spotted in a main bridge that runs across one of Shanghai's waterways on Monday, barely two weeks after similar damage was found in a bridge in Jiangsu province.
Large chunks of concrete have fallen off one of the piers of the Henan Road Bridge, one of the busiest across the Suzhou Creek, opening up a crack about 4 m in length.
The bridge was renovated less than a year ago.
What provoked the city's residents further was the fact that authorities tried to fill up the crevice with construction rubble, including plastic foam and leather bags.
Workers were spotted repairing the bridge yesterday, even as all efforts to get a comment from Shanghai Foundation Engineering Co Ltd, the company that built the bridge, failed.
The Shanghai Urban Construction and Communications Committee, which oversees the city's construction quality, said that the structure of the bridge is safe and there are no potential safety hazards.
Traffic flow on the bridge has not yet been affected by the damage.
The committee said the crack was caused by the "subsidence of the earth-retaining wall" and only the surface decoration of the bridge required repairs.
But the assurance failed to appease local residents and construction experts, who pointed out that quality was being overlooked in China's race to construct, and there needs to be more supervision from the local authorities.
"It's against reason to use construction rubble for fillers within the pier if it is supposed to bear the load of the bridge," said Zeng Minggen, deputy director of the Department of Bridge Engineering at Tongji University.
Related readings:
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Waste used to fill crack in bridge Govt: Overloading caused Tianjin bridge to collapse
Waste used to fill crack in bridge NE China's bridge collapse leaves one dead
"I think the construction company must have failed to do what the project design required in order to either meet the deadline or cut costs."
He added quality was an issue with many construction projects in China, as they are "usually rushed ahead to meet both deadlines and budgets".
"The problem lies not only with the construction companies, but also with the design and supervision parties who fail to do their part. Authorities need to strengthen regulations," he said.
The Xinmin Evening website cited a nearby resident as saying that the rift on the Henan Road Bridge had been discovered nearly half a year ago and that he is concerned about his safety every time he goes past it.
"What I couldn't understand is why a bridge renovated only less than a year ago would develop cracks," he said.
Earlier this month, a bridge in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, developed numerous cracks, which authorities later pasted with glue, raising many eyebrows.
Good Luck.
http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/sh...oto=nextoldest -
Originally posted by deathmaster:
so what skills does the chinese not have? tech-wise, their capacity is above that of singapore. take the iphone for example. they can pirate a version of the iphone before the original iphone is even out on the market.
if you want to talk about exposure to westerners, i think they will soon kick us out of the market. go to any city in china, and you will find many westerners out there in the streets, tourists and expats. there are much more westerners out there in china than in singapore.
also, china has a large pool of overseas citizens who can and are readily filling the gap in terms of expertise in dealing with westerners and western firms.
so what skills does the Chinese lack? other than the fact that we have a stronger currency than them, i can't think of anything else that give us an edge over them.
Yes we have.
Tech-wise, so what if they can pirate a version of the iphone? Monkeys see monkeys do, is much easier than understanding the basis of a subject and being able to apply.
The chinese lack a lot on bridging the gap between tech-capabilities and business needs, that's one very important factor.
The majority of chinese also do not excel in an extroverted position, such as one that requires frequent interaction with many different people.
I can think of many other examples of how we are better than them.
Don't look down on our fellow countrymen, just for the sake of objecting to LKY's comments. I personally believe in our own people, otherwise, we would not be consistently ranked as one of the most productive workforce in the world.
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I think Singapore should throw out LKY and bring in a local chinese as leader of Singapore. 50 years under a minority figure is enough for us chinese of Singapore.
I just want a leader that speaks chinese. Is that too much to ask? I don't want someone keep on talking rubbish to me everyday in an alien language that half the population doesn't understand.
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Originally posted by soul_rage:
Yes we have.
Tech-wise, so what if they can pirate a version of the iphone? Monkeys see monkeys do, is much easier than understanding the basis of a subject and being able to apply.
The chinese lack a lot on bridging the gap between tech-capabilities and business needs, that's one very important factor.
The majority of chinese also do not excel in an extroverted position, such as one that requires frequent interaction with many different people.
I can think of many other examples of how we are better than them.
Don't look down on our fellow countrymen, just for the sake of objecting to LKY's comments. I personally believe in our own people, otherwise, we would not be consistently ranked as one of the most productive workforce in the world.
+1
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"While China's political leaders can speak to American leaders, they cannot do so on a more intimate basis, he said." I believe he meant the Chinese in china are politically more conservative than us, they prefer missionary positions while Ang Mohs prefer the other hole. Hence Singaporeans who are used to this can bring value to china by offering the other whole on China's behalf.
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Originally posted by Arapahoe:
This is where I think the direction got to stop here.
Rather than focusing on "what to bring to China" But in Singapore when we should be asking.....
What should Singapore do successfully that China is unable to do.
Isn't this the wrong direction from our leaders????
well, you hv to be logic, he is answering a lady question, a lady who wanted to work in china...be objective ya -
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Originally posted by Fantagf:
Look at the way he treated the Chinese educated in the 60's and 70's, I can't help but shed a tear for them ...
He has single-handedly destroyed the Chinese education in Singapore they way the cultural revolution had destroyed a generation of Chinese intellectuals ...
Now that China is on the rise again he is urging all Singaporeans to capitalize on its rise.
Sigh, the Chinese educated in the 60's and 70's were born in the wrong time at the wrong place.
Were they born in Malaysia which was fighting communists at the same time like we did, they would have had a better fate ...Well time changed, you need to change your mentality, if you keep bringing up the old grandfather stories, i think there will no end to it, the environment changed, and we got to adjust to suit it, not to go back to history and start changing for the sake of history??? Whatever happen in the past, it cultivate what it is today, and if today we are still cultivating ourselves from the past to reach a future, I think we are doomed. We should look forward and do the right thing now, for the present shall determine our future.
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Originally posted by ztreyier:
I think Singapore should throw out LKY and bring in a local chinese as leader of Singapore. 50 years under a minority figure is enough for us chinese of Singapore.
I just want a leader that speaks chinese. Is that too much to ask? I don't want someone keep on talking rubbish to me everyday in an alien language that half the population doesn't understand.
Well, Lky is a chinese...a strait born chinese. And the funny part is, after 50years, then you start to complain about him?? Aren't you abit too late and not fair to him. -
Originally posted by soul_rage:
Yes we have.
Tech-wise, so what if they can pirate a version of the iphone? Monkeys see monkeys do, is much easier than understanding the basis of a subject and being able to apply.
The chinese lack a lot on bridging the gap between tech-capabilities and business needs, that's one very important factor.
The majority of chinese also do not excel in an extroverted position, such as one that requires frequent interaction with many different people.
I can think of many other examples of how we are better than them.
Don't look down on our fellow countrymen, just for the sake of objecting to LKY's comments. I personally believe in our own people, otherwise, we would not be consistently ranked as one of the most productive workforce in the world.
Hello, the main thing the chinese cannot cope with us is Corruption, Chinese for centuries fall from dynasty to dynasty because of Corruption and brutal ruling, by right, China has one of the longest history with dynasty after dynasty, kingdom after kingdom, it should be a world leader before even american or europe come around.Tech wise, in 10 years, we will not match them, trade and economy wise, we also cannot match them in term size and resources. The only thing left that we can win them, is Trust. That is why we are one of the best financial service sector in the world. Europe and american investing in China do not want Chinese accountants, they want, Singaporean or Hongkong accountants. Because Chinese accountants tend to massage the figure for their own good.
In China, business is not run by trust, which most western or even asian get cheated, it is base on relationship, you need to build that relationship, that is why so many chinese students who are future business people in China are studying here so that our youngs can get to build relationship with them first, same goes to our youngs going to china for intern training. As such, when they grew up, the relationship and bonds is there.
When Comfort started operation it fleet of taxis in China, shanghai, chinese drivers came in from all over provinces, trained and get licensed, rented the taxi to ply for their trade, just like our Singaporean taxi Uncle did, take a taxis lesson, rent out a taxi and do their business. But by the third day of operation, 50 taxis need not come back.....so much for the trust ya.
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Originally posted by ztreyier:
I think Singapore should throw out LKY and bring in a local chinese as leader of Singapore. 50 years under a minority figure is enough for us chinese of Singapore.
I just want a leader that speaks chinese. Is that too much to ask? I don't want someone keep on talking rubbish to me everyday in an alien language that half the population doesn't understand.
Your mentality is exactly why i agree with what LKY did post independence.We're the minority in the region and a very disliked minority at that. Which part of that don't you understand?
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HongKong graduates possess bilingual and bicultural skills.They will be enough. More over,they love China，which is different from Singaporeans.
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Originally posted by ztreyier:
I think Singapore should throw out LKY and bring in a local chinese as leader of Singapore. 50 years under a minority figure is enough for us chinese of Singapore.
I just want a leader that speaks chinese. Is that too much to ask? I don't want someone keep on talking rubbish to me everyday in an alien language that half the population doesn't understand.
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Originally posted by laurence82 father:
lky must think skill is as easy as cooing laksa!
he doesnt even know exactly what a dvd is when national geographic CAME TO INYTERVIEW HIM ??!!!!he dont even upgrade whats around him let alone run other people's lives!!!HE IS CARELESS YET APPEAR TO DEMAND TOTAL UNDYING OBEDIENCE FROM ALL!!
MM step down and retire....U ARE BEGINING TO SOUND LIKE AN OLD FOOL!
This is a national joke of all time in Singapore. Sheng huo bai ci!
He should just shut up and proceed to hell.
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Originally posted by angel7030:
Well time changed, you need to change your mentality, if you keep bringing up the old grandfather stories, i think there will no end to it, the environment changed, and we got to adjust to suit it, not to go back to history and start changing for the sake of history??? Whatever happen in the past, it cultivate what it is today, and if today we are still cultivating ourselves from the past to reach a future, I think we are doomed. We should look forward and do the right thing now, for the present shall determine our future.
Shut up and please don't come to my thread to contribute rubbish.You are forever misinterpreting words. Please go learn basic English before you communicate with us in Speakers' Corner and sgforums.
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Originally posted by Arapahoe:
This is where I think the direction got to stop here.
Rather than focusing on "what to bring to China" But in Singapore when we should be asking.....
What should Singapore do successfully that China is unable to do.
Isn't this the wrong direction from our leaders????
He has got the curry favouring China intention at all times. This motivates him to put down the people in Singapore who feed him to magnify China and her people.
He must learn how to appreciate and be grateful to us Singaporeans who feed him though most of us consider him a liability.
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Funny... if he's dogmatic n' stuck there like a wad of toothless old gum, why still vote his cohorts to rule a 1-party govt in S''pore every 5 years?! Anyway, what Singaporeans could bring to China would be our "honesty". If any Singaporean could outsmart the "Chinese cannibals", we can rule the world without grovelling to the Chinks!
