ABSTRACT
Singapore's relations with China have always been highly cyclical, with as many downs as ups. Singapore history itself has known several eclipses. At the state level, things developed quite differently from people-to-people relationships. From 1975, after the Sino-US rapprochement in 1971-72 Singapore leaders began to develop more formal relations with China. The opening up of Shanghai to foreign trade, Singapore was essentially an emporium, roughly halfway between Bengal and South China, where Indian and Chinese goods could be exchanged with the minimum of government controls and without paying taxes. During the medieval and early modern periods, the connection between Southeast Asia and India seemed to have been more prevalent and more permanent than the connection with China. Indian traders and settled communities were more conspicuous, Indian influence was much more obvious in almost all cultural and political fields.
