Commentary: The Wall Street Journal’s move from Hong Kong is an attractive prize for Singapore – but what gives?

Talking Freedom

The Wall Street Journal is no stranger to engaging in combat with administrations on this front.

Three of its Beijing editors were fired in 2020 for writing an opinion part.

China’s first press conference investigation into several investigators from one company since the nation’s economic boom in the 1980s.

Singapore’s attempt to be both an attractive location for business and skill but also a safe haven for unnecessary outside influence continues to play the balance. &nbsp,

Unusual businesses, including the media, will be drawn in, but strict laws and constant watch will still be in order.

Immigration is a popular political topic, and big foreign fund flows frequently lead to asset inflation, such as in car and property prices.

Maintaining this compromise will be a persistent problem, as demonstrated by the new multi-billion buck money laundering case. &nbsp,

Perhaps a venerable keeper of press freedom finds the city a suitable place to work in because having international media established there is an attractive reward for the government and grants them bragging rights. &nbsp,

On this front, everything has changed.

In 1990, Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents ‘ Club president Lee Kuan Yew addressed a largely expatriate audience of journalists, saying,” Hong Kong has provided them ( expatriate journalists ) with a perch from which to watch events in Asia and to comment on them with that ineffable air of sublime confidence. It is the only Asian region where the pale gentleman also ruled. For a perch is never replaceable. &nbsp,

” All the strategies, Tokyo, Seoul, Taipei, Manila, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur or Jakarta do not provide the same friendly atmosphere for expats.

If I am straight about this, then you should never rule out Singapore. Singapore will appear a little different from the peaceful but barren, efficient but dull and autocratic place it has been depicted to be in 1997.

The Wall Street Journal’s walk around may count as one more get in the case, if fairly belated, because the income ball was made more than 30 years earlier.