My generation's story is the story of independent Singapore. Our lives are testimony to the values that forged our nation: Incorruptibility, meritocr… - Lawrence Wong

China certainly looks at the US as trying to contain, encircle, and suppress them, and trying to deny them their rightful place in the world. It is not just the leadership who thinks like that. I think if you talk to a lot of the Chinese officials, they feel the same way, they feel that there is this containment to put China down. There is that sense and for every action, there will be an opposite reaction. And so China you will see, trying to find ways to get out of that containment; to make sure they become technologically self-reliant. At the same time, China has been through phases of their development where they talk about standing up, getting rich and now being strong. They see themselves as a strong country, their time has come and they want to be more assertive in their national interest, including their national interest overseas. But there too, China will have to learn – as all big countries do – that if they overdo it, if they push their way around, coerce, squeeze or pressurise other countries, it will engender a backlash – including in the region. That is why they cannot go too far, and they will have to learn that lesson – it is a lesson that all big countries go through.

As Singaporeans, we all know what it means to exceed expectations - to go beyond what others think we are capable of, or even what we ourselves thought we could do. When the going gets tough, we do not crumble. We press on, with faith in our fellow citizens and in Singapore's future.

Because here in Singapore, you have a majority ethnic Chinese population, we all have links with China. But we have to remind ourselves and also China, that we are Singaporeans, we do business on the basis of our national interests, not on the basis of our ethnic ties. But we also have a Malay population that will have links with countries in the region and with the global Ummah, the wider Islamic community. And we have an Indian population, which will have ancestral links, familial links with India. So it is a population that you can see how can be easily swayed by these influences. Because the links we have going back to these civilizations or larger countries are deep and emotional, they are cultural, and we want to maintain the links, the links make us who we are. We value these linkages. At the same time, we have to continually remind our people, engage with Singaporeans that we are Singaporeans; when we do things, it has to be on the basis of our national interest.