Hopes for peace should be tempered even as S'pore is prepared for a more dangerous world: Sim Ann

The local Chinese community has had a fairly positive assessment of Mr Donald Trump's re-election as president of the US, given beliefs that he is pro-business and will be a changemaker.

- Chin Soo Fang

The community is also hopeful that the war in Ukraine will end soon, which will stabilise energy and food prices, and that no matter what, the world will need a place like Singapore.

Sharing these observations in the House on March 3, Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Sim Ann sought to provide a dose of realism from the Government's perspective.

In a Mandarin speech, she said Singaporeans have noticed that Mr Trump has extended the use of tariffs as a policy tool, and that the US has changed from being the main advocate of freer trade to a country that uses both tariff and non-tariff barriers to pursue economic and non-economic objectives.

"Even then, because Singapore was not a direct target of these tariffs, my friends in the Chinese community expressed hope that Singapore would not be too affected by the global situation, including possible trade wars," Ms Sim said.

These sentiments, gleaned from community gatherings during the recent Chinese New Year period, are likely because many active members of the Chinese community are businesspeople, she noted.

However, drastic changes have taken place on the world stage since those conversations took place, she said.