Embassy of Singapore in Beijing
The embassy of Singapore in Beijing, located at Chancery: No. 1 Xiu Shui Bei Jie, Jian Guo Men Wai, Chaoyang District, serves the same functions as any embassy, it represents the interests of Singapore in China.
When we think of an embassy we normally think of the ambassador discussing issues with the Chinese government on behalf of his own government. While this certainly happens, most of the work of the embassy is more routine.
The embassy is primarily responsible with looking out for the interests of citizens of Singapore while they are in China and in promoting Singapore to the Chinese. If a visitor from Singapore runs into difficulty while he is in China he can contact the embassy for help. How much help the embassy can provide will depend on the kind of difficulty, generally an embassy offers advice more than actually help. The embassy also helps to encourage Chinese tourists and business people to consider Singapore. They will also help people who want to travel to or do business with Singapore to fill out all the required paperwork.
Singapore is a very small country that is located next to Malaysia, really it is just a city. The population of Singapore is primarily ethnic Chinese . Long a center of trade Singapore was originally a colony that allowed European
access to the goods of the far east. Since gaining it's independence Singapore has continued to perform this role as it has made itself into a free trade zone in order to encourage business to flow through the country.
Singapore is what is known as one of the Asian tigers, a country that after getting it's independence so a rapid growth in its economy in the second half of the twentieth century. The country went from being a backward third world
country to one that matched the levels of western countries in very short order. It did this through a combination of focusing on high tech manufacturing and by establishing itself as a free trade zone. Singapore is now a major
center of trade and a large percentage of business being done in Asia goes through the country.
Given that the countries population is primarily ethnic Chinese it should probably come as no surprise that Singapore and China have a good relationship. Singapore would very much like to keep it that way as the growth of China as
an economic power provides plenty of opportunity for them. The dynamic of the relationship will certainly change as China becomes more powerful, but if anything it will likely drive Singapore and China closer together.
In the future more and more of the trade going through Singapore will be with China and this should help to cement the relationship.