The past experience of Singapore’s investment in China in the 1990s indicates
that the investments were not without tension and conflict. The case of the Suzhou
Industrial Park illustrates clearly how different Singapore Chinese are from those in the
mainland China. Chan and Tong (2000) note that “…a Singaporean Chinese is like them
and not like them; or he is like them now, but not like them later…” Culturally they are
the same and yet they are not exactly the same. The exploitation of “ethnic advantage”
for investment in China in this respect may be over-exaggerated.