China Was Never Singapore at Scale

The analogy was always partial, enticing, and ultimately misleading. 

Artists make drawings by a pond outside the ArtScience Museum next to the city skyline in Singapore on Feb. 18, 2025. Roslan Rahman/AFP via Getty Images

Commentary

For 30 years, one of the most comforting stories told in boardrooms, Davos panels, and foreign-policy salons was about China. Beijing had simply copied the “best model”: Lee Kuan Yew’s Singapore, then scaled it up.