V36

The Island That Refused to Be a Province

Singapore has spent sixty years insisting it is not a Chinese city. That project was always fragile. The current wave — corporate, capital, and commercial — is its most serious test yet. Walk through any suburban mall and the evidence is sensory and immediate: Mixue, Luckin, Haidilao, malatang stalls, BYD vehicles in the car park. Further up the value chain, Chinese tech firms are reincorporating in Raffles Place to scrub their geopolitical risk, and wealthy mainlanders are buying Good Class Bungalows in cash. Singapore benefits from …read more

By Dhruv Manoj