Mr Lee Kuan Yew's first visit to China was in 1976. But Singapore established diplomatic relations with China only on Oct 3, 1990 at the United Nations complex in New York, the last of the original Asean countries to do so.
WHY DID IT TAKE SO LONG?
Excerpt from the Straits Times:
With its majority Chinese population, Singapore had to be sensitive to the perception of its neighbours.
To avoid being labelled a "third China", Singapore wanted to be the last of the original five Asean nations to normalise diplomatic relations with China before it did so. Malaysia was the first to do so in 1974, and Philippines and Thailand followed in 1975.
Indonesia, in particular, had a difficult relationship with China. Ties were severed in 1967 after Jakarta accused Beijing of complicity in an abortive communist coup attempt.
Indonesia resumed formal relations with China in August 1990, after Beijing pledged not to interfere in Indonesia's internal affairs.
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