China’s ambassador to Singapore, Sun Haiyan, will be leaving her post after slightly more than a year.

Sun, who arrived in Singapore in May 2022, will be returning to China at the end of July 2023, according to Lianhe Zaobao.

Promotion

According to Zaobao, Sun will reportedly be promoted to deputy minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China (CPCID).

The agency takes charge of establishing and maintaining relations with foreign political parties.

Sun, 51, a law graduate from Peking University, entered the ILD in 1997.

Prior to her Singapore posting, she was the Director-General of the Bureau I in ILD, responsible for exchanges with South and Southeast Asian countries.

Zaobao believes she will be the first deputy minister in the country's central foreign affairs apparatus born after 1970 and the first female deputy minister in the department.

Relations

In a Facebook post dated Jul. 22, Singapore's ex-foreign minister George Yeo thanked Sun for her "short but remarkable posting".

During her tenure in Singapore, she also had multiple engagements with U.S’ ambassador to Singapore, Jonathan Kaplan.

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Additionally, she accompanied Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s delegation to China, during which the latter met with top Chinese officials and China's president Xi Jinping.

Vocal in Singapore

Sun has also been vocal about her position on China’s policies.

For instance, she contributed two pieces to Zaobao's English language online magazine with a China focus, ThinkChina.

The first, published in November 2022, was a response to an article by Lee Huay Leng, the editor-in-chief of SPH Chinese Media Group, a piece about China’s Covid management and the potential overlook of individuals’ experiences.

In her reply, Sun pointed out reasons for the necessary but difficult decisions made by the Chinese government during the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the complex realities of policymaking.

The second piece was published in March 2023, speaking about the position of Singapore in a tumultuous world with issues like the Taiwan strait and the war in Ukraine.

Earlier, she also hit back at U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, calling it an “unprovoked challenge” to China’s sovereignty.

China to resume 15-day visa-free entry policy for S'poreans

The Chinese Embassy in Singapore announced on Jul. 23 that the Chinese government will resume the 15-day visa-free policy for Singaporeans holding ordinary passports who enter China for business, tourism, family visits and transit purposes.

"We are confident that more measures to facilitate people-to-people exchange between China and Singapore will be unveiled in future", the Chinese Embassy in Singapore announced on its Facebook post.

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Top images via Facebook/Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Singapore & MCI