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MM Lee Kuan Yew: Beijing leads new approach to growth

A NEW school of thought is emerging on what a country needs to grow economically.

And leading it is China, which will use the upcoming Olympic Games as a platform to put across its message on growth, said Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew.

In highlighting the China model, he said: 'There is now growing a certain Beijing Consensus that is different from the Washington Consensus.

'What is it you need to grow? Order, certainty, consistency, hard work, market-friendly policies, savings and investments, trade, education and training.'

This is a shift from the development model touted by the United States since the early 1990s, which stresses open economies and minimal state intervention, and is based on the superiority of democratic politics.

Mr Lee described the China phenomenon in an interview last Tuesday with Bloomberg News. The transcript was released by his office yesterday.

He noted that China has been conveying its message on the attributes for growth to leaders around the world and 'the Olympics will be another occasion'.

In particular, leaders in Asia, Africa and elsewhere in the developing world 'are asking themselves, how did this country, in 30 years, from such backwardness, suddenly make this great big leap into modernity'.

During the interview, Mr Lee spoke on issues both local and global - ranging from Singapore's political- succession challenge to China's handling of the Tibet issue.

While he commented favourably on what he anticipates will be an Olympic Games of 'world standards', he was critical of the way China had handled the Tibet protests.

For instance, it ordered the foreign media out of Tibet when riots broke out in March.

'Had they engaged the West, all this would have turned out differently,' said Mr Lee, referring to the protests that dogged the global Olympic torch relay.

'Why didn't they? Because there was a chasm between their mental make-up and that of the West.

'So they say, 'All Western correspondents out' - that means you have got something to hide. I think that was not very wise.'

China, he added, 'should learn to...take the Western media on the Western media's terms'.

So, if pro-Tibetan protesters were to turn up at the Games' opening ceremony and the Western media plays it up, Mr Lee said this is what he would do: 'If I were them, I would expect that and say, 'So what?''.

After all, he added, 'what the media says and what the impressions leaders and top leaders take away are two different things'.

But unfortunately, China is still set in its 'old' mindset, in the way it reacts, he said.

'But they're learning.'

Getting out of this mindset is its biggest challenge.

'The day they build up an educated middle class, huge numbers of whom have been educated abroad... and they are the people setting policies at the top, not people whose mental mindsets are from Soviet days, that day, they will find they can play by the Western rules and win.'