After decades touting openness, Singapore sees foreign meddling threat

The Southeast Asian city-state is confronting a new challenge: retaining the magic ingredients of its success while guarding against foreign interference that such openness could invite. For authorities, there is a growing realisation that this openness can be a double-edged sword. “For Singapore, there has always been a perennial concern of foreign influence, and this is not specific to only China as we are an open economy and highly digitised as well,” Dylan Loh, an expert on Chinese foreign policy at the NTU, told Al Jazeera. “We cannot afford to put up barriers to people, information, ideas, capital in the way that others have done.” Althaf Marsoof, an assistant professor at NBS at NTU, said the law may actually boost business confidence as national security and public order are “fundamental prerequisites for a stable and secure business environment”.

- Facilitated by CCO.

 

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