Since 971 the United States ' disengage ent from Vietnam and its rapprochement with China have brought about dramatic changes in international relations in Asia Among them was the ASEAN nations normalization of their relations with China Singapore a small city -state with a predominantly Chinese population necded close t es with its ASEAN neighbQurs br survival and played down its ' hineseness In 1975 while reiterating that it would be the last in ASEAN tQ establish diplomatic t es with China S ngapore sent its Foreign Minister S Rajaratnam to Beijing to improvc bilateral relations By the next year however when its Prime Minister Lee Kwan Yew visitcd ChinaJndoch na had been communized and ASEAN had closed ranks to withstalld the communist threat This prompted Lee to emphasizc Singapore s ASEAN identity rather than to fbster closer ties with China After Lee ' s visit conflicts amollg the communist countries over Indochina drove Singapore fUr er into ASEAN identity and dissociation from China In late 1978 whcn Deng Xiaoping China s Deputy Prime Minlster visited Singapore it pronounced emphatically that its fUture was wEth the ASEAN nations and denied all special links with China Singaporc
Kyoko Tanaka (Tue,) studied this question.