In a report from Hong Kong's popular South China Morning Post, the most conventional greeting between two unfamiliar Chinese government officials is "Have you ever received professional training in Singapore," while South Korean officials greet each other with the prices of kimchi..nbsp.
Learn from Singapore
Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore was founded by ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia and is now the only remaining overseas Chinese college. Therefore, it has maintained close connections with China. In the early 1990s, NTU became the first training school for Chinese government officials to "learn from Singapore."
Regarding the reason why the Chinese government has turned its back on Western countries and chose Singapore to train its officials in modern governmental administration, the president of NTU has said: "The combination of Chinese and Western cultures makes Singapore more attractive to China. Besides, we don't share the same political system with either Europe or America. Like China, we are a single-party state." According to him, using Chinese as the teaching language also gave Singaporean universities the edge compared with Western colleges.
The training program began in 1992 as the former leader of China, Deng Xiaoping, called for the nation to "learn from Singapore" in boosting the economy, as well as maintaining social stability. China then launched its training program for government officials in Singapore.
So far, NTU alone has trained more than 10,000 Chinese government officials.
"We're lucky to have the opportunity to introduce our pattern of public management, as well as the theories and practices of good governance to these Chinese officials, who come to Singapore for the express purpose of learning from the country's successful experiences," a professor from Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy was quoted in an interview as saying.
The "Mayor Class"
The training program for China's senior government officials in Singapore kicked off in 2001 when the two governments signed a cooperative memorandum. The Organization Department of the Central Committee of the CPC, as well as China's Ministry of Education have so far sent department or bureau level mayors and leaders who are ranked as mayors in the administrative level. The "mayor class" thus got its reputation as so.
In 2010, the National University of Singapore joined NTU in receiving Chinese officials to its professional program at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Only senior government officials that are section chiefs with at least 10 years of working experience can be accepted.
In addition, officials with a degree received from Party schools other than from the national education system are not qualified to enter the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
One anonymous professor who said that he "had learned a lot from the Chinese officials," praised them as "talented civil servants with a sense of public service." "They have the will and enthusiasm to fulfill their obligations," he added.
On the other hand, he also mentioned that, being restricted by Chinese traditional culture, these government officials by and large, lack a sense of critical thinking.
In Singapore, these Chinese government officials are frequently reminded of the comparative transparency of the Singaporean government, and the proper responses from the government to social demands. Professors from NTU, attempt to show Singapore's experiment of combining Confucian civilization with that of Western political systems.
"Practitioners as guides to practitioners"
According to the Singaporean schools, the core of their training program is to appoint "Singaporean practitioners as guides to Chinese practitioners." Chinese officials learn policy making and application from both on-duty and retired Singaporean senior officials. Besides, they get the chance to visit Singapore's governmental departments, usually hosted by high ranking officials in accordance with the course arrangement.
During their time in Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, government officials from China take a one-week-long internship in Singaporean governmental departments at the end of the semester.
"Last year, we had 18 trainees arranged in related government departments and the chosen departments had specifically sent officials capable of Chinese language to communicate with these Chinese trainees," said Huang Huizhen from NTU.
Many Chinese officials have arranged to visit Singapore's grassroots communities.
Song Bo, the director of the Government Offices Administration Bureau of Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province told reporters that to view China from the perspective of a foreign country was inspiring. "We now have a clearer sense of both problems and achievements in current China," Song Bo added.
