Something of international significance will occur this Saturday.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou in Singapore this Saturday (Nov 7).

What is this significant? This is because it is the first meeting between the top leaders of the two sides since 1949.

How did Bloomberg cover the issue?

It went apeshit decided to frame the event as one that was engineered by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and the Singapore government.

The reason? Because it is going to be held in Singapore. And maybe because Singapore was previously used as a venue for China-Taiwan talks in 1993.

Did Bloomberg confirm with Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs?

Nope.

It quoted an associate professor at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) who said that it was a major breakthrough in cross relations, adding that "the formality will have to be carefully arranged by the Singapore government”.

There is no official word from MFA about this event, but check out the comments by other international relations experts about this report:

Ambassador-at-large Bilahari Kausikan and former MFA Permanent Secretary

Former Straits Times China correspondent Chua Chin Hon

Poorly reported Bloomberg article on the Xi-Ma meeting; makes the fatal assumption that S'pore is an active conduit https://t.co/uJyBe3DCUy

— Chua Chin Hon (@chinhon) November 4, 2015

There's no evidence so far to suggest S'pore helped broker this meeting.Just cos it's playing host doesn't mean SG played role in setting up

— Chua Chin Hon (@chinhon) November 4, 2015

BLG copyed must be big fan of SG PM:"Lee’s son will make history in his own right-uniting leaders of China n Taiwan, even if just for a day"

— Chua Chin Hon (@chinhon) November 4, 2015

No wonder owner Michael Bloomberg has to return to lead his organisation again.

Top photo from Lee Hsien Loong Facebook.

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