Lee Kuan Yew among 10 foreigners honoured by China for helping its reform

In his speech, President Xi Jinping thanked China's foreign friends for their various roles in helping the nation on its road to reform.
Singapore’s late founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew was awarded the China Reform Friendship Medal on 18 December 2018. (Reuters file photo)

Singapore’s late founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew was among 10 foreigners honoured by China on Tuesday (18 December) for his role in the island state’s “deep involvement” in China’s 40 years of reforming and opening up.

Lee, who died in 2015, was posthumously awarded the China Reform Friendship Medal at a ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The event marked the 40th anniversary of China’s journey of reformation, said a report in The Straits Times.

Other foreigners awarded the medal include Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of World Economic Forum; Matsushita Konosuke, founder of Panasonic; Robert Kuhn, adviser to the Chinese government; and Juan Antonio Samaranch, former International Olympic Committee president.

100 Chinese given China Reform Pioneer Award

At the same time, 100 Chinese citizens were given the China Reform Pioneer Award for their outstanding contributions to their nation’s reform efforts. They include Alibaba founder Jack Ma, former NBA basketball player Yao Ming and Robin Li, founder of the Baidu search engine.

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In his speech to hundreds of officials, business leaders and diplomats, China’s President Xi Jinping paid tribute to those who have made outstanding contributions to the movement, which was launched by patriarch Deng Xiaoping in 1978.

He also thanked China’s foreign friends for their various roles in helping the nation on its road to reform.

Deng and Lee developed a close friendship after Deng’s visit to Singapore in 1978. Deng had said then that China should learn from Singapore’s modernisation experience.

China has undertaken reformative measures in practically all sectors of society in the last four decades, as it transformed from a planned economy to a socialist market economy.

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