FYI, the Singapore public debt is objectively not unsustainable. On the surface, Singapore's public debt-to-GDP ratio is at around 110%, which is slightly higher than the US. Over the course of Singapore's history, each term of the government operated on a balanced budget (i.e., revenue >= expenditure). The government bonds are issue to "develop the domestic debt market". In fact, the government is legally not allowed to spend the proceed of the public debt.

For more information, see https://www.gov.sg/factually/content/is-it-fiscally-sustaina....

Running short and long term debt balances to create financial market liquidity isn't uncommon. When Australia reached zero long-term debt in the early 2000s, the government continued raising and retiring hundreds of billions of dollars of debt on a regular cadence to provide AUD liquidity in the debt markets.

Any nation of the Singapore's size would be ruined without trade. That's independent of debt levels, Singapore has to specialize and just cannot run a self-sustaining economy.

> But how does China 'assuming its rightful place' should look in practical terms?

> Allowing East Asia to become China's vassal territory?

Sure, in much the same way that it was in the past, and in much the same way that all of North and South America are vassals to the United States.

It is not realistic for East and even Southeast Asian countries to care more about what the US thinks than what China thinks; I don't understand how people can advocate for this goal with a straight face.

East Asia is vassal to the US at the moment...

I think countries like Singapore, Korea, etc do not want the US, Korea, to leave. They are between a rock and a hard place and want to balance the US and China in order not to become too dependent on one and to benefit from both.

Singapore, which is quite "China-friendly" is saying exactly that.

What I find interesting is that the West in general, and obviously the US in particular, indeed cannot seem to imagine or accept that their complete dominance of the world is coming to an end. This is a rude awakening.

Singapore, which has an history of promoting "Asian values" and is a former British colony with 70%+ ethnic Chinese is very well place to tell us things as they are.

> East Asia is vassal to the US at the moment...

Even if it were true I am not sure if people of Singapore, Korea, Japan, Thailand or Taiwan would like to swap places with people of Xinjang or Tibet..

They don't want to change places with people of Iraq or Syria either.

> Singapore, which is quite "China-friendly" is saying exactly that.

No, that is a fundamental misjudge. Singapore can be safely regarded as one of major anti China forces in the region. If you just look back several years, Singapore actually managed to got itself in the anti China side on almost every single recent major events.

Singapore is certainly not anti-China, and this speech shows it.

It's easy to understand if you agree that US hypocrisy is crucially protected by manufactured consent and propaganda. Most people fall in two categories, either a) not heard of Chomsky, or b) think he's wrong.

> Most people fall in two categories, either a) not heard of Chomsky, or b) think he's wrong.

On HN of all places I suspect that most people fall in a third category:

c) related to designing & parsing grammars

South America is not a US vassals. Some of the tiny countries that were invaded have strong dependency on the US. But Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Mexico, Venezuela

I struggle to believe they are. Where ever did you get that idea from

Look at places holding US debt to identify vasal States.

The debt is what defends the state. A coup or military takeover and that debt won't get repaid, so there is financial incentives for the US to intervene.

That is so not why treasury bonds are bought and the opposite of how they work. They are bought to be stable and value stores and some exchange rate hedging. It acknowledges supremacy sure in that they think it would be extraordinarily less likely to collapse.

They pay the money upfront for them and if the regieme change was illegitimate enough to freeze the bond it would be "free money" until a legitimate claimant comes forward. Like a neighboring city's bank refusing to turn over money from the account of Gotham after joker took over the city. That is the only securing function of it - meaning others lose it if they steal it.

So, China is a U.S. vassal state?

Civilization games taught me that vassals, when powerful enough can break their vassalage and become free again.

Perhaps that's what is happening with China. It's no longer dependent on the US in the way it was and in time, will eclipse the US as the largest superpower.

China isn't a U.S. vassal. An economic partner of convenience, maybe, the U.S. influence on China's political structure is pretty limited.