- published: 15 Sep 2012
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- author: 154media
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![TV Forum: Conversation with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong - 14Sep2012 [HD]](http://web.archive.org./web/20121208082115im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/xqoBDpgilpA/default.jpg "Fast forward to 07:12 to hear PM Lee said KPKB~! Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong: A conversation with PM Lee, on education, pre-schoolers, technology and Singapore of the future What would encourage Singaporeans to have children? The conversation with PM Lee on parenthood A conversation with PM Lee on ugly Singaporeans, values and accepting immigrants Home, Heart and Hope. Will future Singaporeans have a better life? SINGAPORE: Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is holding a TV forum called")
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Australia
Australia (
/əˈstreɪljə/), officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent as well as the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area. Neighbouring countries include Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea to the north; the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia to the north-east; and New Zealand to the south-east.
For at least 40,000 years before European settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who belonged to one or more of roughly 250 language groups. After discovery by Dutch explorers in 1606, Australia's eastern half was claimed by Great Britain in 1770 and settled through penal transportation to the colony of New South Wales from 26 January 1788. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades; the continent was explored and an additional five self-governing Crown Colonies were established.
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Brunei
Brunei
i/bruːˈnaɪ/, officially the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace (Malay: Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi: نڬارا بروني دارالسلام), is a sovereign state located on the north coast of the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia. Apart from its coastline with the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the state of Sarawak, Malaysia, and it is separated into two parts by the Sarawak district of Limbang. It is the only sovereign state completely on the island of Borneo, with the remainder of the island belonging to Malaysia and Indonesia. Brunei's population was 401,890 in July 2011.
The official national history claims that Brunei can trace its beginnings to the 7th century, when it was a subject state of the Srivijayan empire under the name P'o-li. It later became a vassal state of Majapahit empire before converting to Islam in the 15th century. At the peak of its empire, the sultanate had control that extended over the coastal regions of modern-day Sarawak and Sabah, the Sulu archipelago, and the islands off the northwest tip of Borneo. The thalassocracy was visited by Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 and fought the Castille War in 1578 against Spain. Its empire began to decline with the forced ceding of Sarawak to James Brooke and the ceding of Sabah to the British North Borneo Chartered Company. After the loss of Limbang, Brunei finally became a British protectorate in 1888, receiving a resident in 1906. In the years after the Japanese wartime occupation during World War II, it formalised a constitution and fought an armed rebellion. Brunei regained its independence from the United Kingdom on 1 January 1984. Economic growth during the 1970s and 1990s, averaging 56% from 1999 to 2008, has transformed Brunei Darussalam into a newly industrialised country.
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Burma
Burma
i/ˈbɜrmə/ BUR-mə, also known as Myanmar i/ˌmjɑːnˈmɑr/ MYAHN--MAR, is a country in South Asia and Southeast Asia. It is bordered by India, Bangladesh, China, Laos and Thailand. One-third of Burma's total perimeter of 1,930 kilometres (1,200 mi) forms an uninterrupted coastline along the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. At 676,578 km2 (261,227 sq mi), it is the 40th largest country in the world and the second largest country in Southeast Asia. Burma is also the 24th most populous country in the world with over 60.28 million people.
Burma is home to some of the early civilizations of Southeast Asia including the Pyu and the Mon. In the 9th century, the Burmans of the Kingdom of Nanzhao, entered the upper Irrawaddy valley and, following the establishment of the Pagan Empire in the 1050s, the Burmese language and culture slowly became dominant in the country. During this period, Theravada Buddhism gradually became the predominant religion of the country. The Pagan Empire fell due to the Mongol invasions (1277–1301), and several warring states emerged. In the second half of the 16th century, the country was reunified by the Taungoo Dynasty which for a brief period was the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia. The early 19th century Konbaung Dynasty ruled over an area that included modern Burma as well as Manipur and Assam. The country was colonized by Britain following three Anglo-Burmese Wars (1824–1885).
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Cambodia
Cambodia (i/kæmˈboʊdiə/;Khmer: ព្រះរាជាណាចក្រកម្ពុជា, Kampuchea, IPA: [kɑmˈpuˈciə]), officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. With a total landmass of 181,035 square kilometres (69,898 sq mi), it is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the northeast, Vietnam to the east, and the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest.
With a population of over 14.8 million, Cambodia is the 68th most populous country in the world. The official religion is Theravada Buddhism, which is practiced by around 95% of the Cambodian population. The country minority groups include Vietnamese, Chinese, Chams and 30 various hill tribes. The capital and largest city is Phnom Penh; the political, economic, and cultural center of Cambodia. The kingdom is a constitutional monarchy with Norodom Sihamoni, a monarch chosen by the Royal Throne Council, as head of state. The head of government is Hun Sen, who is currently the longest serving leader in South East Asia and has ruled Cambodia for over 25 years.
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Canada
Canada ( /ˈkænədə/) is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean. Spanning over 9,900,000 km2 (3,800,000 sq mi), Canada is the world's second-largest country by total area, and its common border with the United States is the longest land border in the world.
The land that is now Canada has been inhabited for millennia by various Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French colonial expeditions explored, and later settled, along the region's Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years' War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of four provinces. This began an accretion of provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy; the Canada Act 1982 severed the vestiges of legal dependence on Britain.
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Chile
Chile (i/ˈtʃɪliː/ or /ˈtʃɪleɪ/), officially the Republic of Chile (Spanish: República de Chile [reˈpuβlika ðe ˈtʃile] (
listen)), is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow strip of land between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far south. Along with Ecuador, it is one of two countries in South America that do not border Brazil. Chilean territory includes the Pacific islands of Juan Fernández, Salas y Gómez, Desventuradas and Easter Island. Chile also claims about 1,250,000 square kilometres (480,000 sq mi) of Antarctica, although all claims are suspended under the Antarctic Treaty.
Chile's distinctive shape—4,300 kilometres (2,700 mi) long and on average 175 kilometres (109 mi) wide—makes it the longest country in the world, north to south, with the fifth lengthiest coastline at over 78 thousand kilometers. The diverse climate of Chile ranges from the world's driest desert in the north—the Atacama—through a Mediterranean climate in the centre, humid subtropical in Easter Island, to an Oceanic climate, including alpine tundra and glaciers in the east and south. The northern desert contains great mineral wealth, principally copper. The relatively small central area dominates in terms of population and agricultural resources, and is the cultural and political center from which Chile expanded in the late 19th century when it incorporated its northern and southern regions. Southern Chile is rich in forests and grazing lands, and features a string of volcanoes and lakes. The southern coast is a labyrinth of fjords, inlets, canals, twisting peninsulas, and islands.
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China
China (i/ˈtʃaɪnə/; Chinese: 中国; pinyin: Zhōngguó; see also Names of China), officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is the world's most-populous country, with a population of over 1.3 billion. Covering approximately 9.6 million square kilometres, the East Asian state is the world's second-largest country by land area, and the third- or fourth-largest in total area, depending on the definition of total area.
The People's Republic of China is a single-party state governed by the Communist Party of China. It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four directly controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing), and two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau). Its capital city is Beijing. The PRC also claims Taiwan—which is controlled by the Republic of China (ROC), a separate political entity—as its 23rd province, a claim controversial due to the complex political status of Taiwan and the unresolved Chinese Civil War. The PRC government denies the legitimacy of the ROC.
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Fort Leavenworth
Fort Leavenworth is a United States Army facility located in Leavenworth County, Kansas, immediately north of the city of Leavenworth in the upper northeast portion of the state. It is the oldest active United States Army post west of Washington, D.C. and has been in operation for over 180 years. Fort Leavenworth has been historically known as the "Intellectual Center of the Army".
During the country's westward expansion, Fort Leavenworth was a forward destination for thousands of soldiers, surveyors, immigrants, American Indians, preachers and settlers who passed through. The garrison supports the United States Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) by managing and maintaining the home of the United States Army Combined Arms Center (CAC). CAC's mission involves leader development, collective training, Army doctrine and battle command (current and future).
Fort Leavenworth is home to the Military Corrections Complex, consisting of the United States Disciplinary Barracks, the Department of Defense's only maximum security prison, and the Midwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility. In addition, the Fort Leavenworth Garrison supports numerous tenant organizations that directly and indirectly relate to the functions of the CAC, including the United States Army Command and General Staff College and the Foreign Military Studies Office.
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Fujian province
Coordinates: 25°54′N 118°18′E / 25.9°N 118.3°E / 25.9; 118.3
Fujian (help·info) (Chinese: 福建), formerly romanised as Fukien or Foukien, is a province on the southeast coast of mainland China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, and Guangdong to the south. Taiwan lies to the east, across the Taiwan Strait. The name Fujian came from the combination of Fuzhou and Jianzhou (a former name for Jian'ou) two cities in Fujian, during the Tang Dynasty. With a Han majority, it is one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse provinces in China.
Most of Fujian is administered by the People's Republic of China. However, the archipelagos of Kinmen and Matsu are under the control of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Thus, there are two provinces (in the sense of government organizations): the Fujian Province administered by the People's Republic of China and the Fujian Province of the Republic of China.
Recent archaeological discoveries demonstrate that Fujian had entered the Neolithic Age by the middle of the 6th millennium BC. From the Keqiutou site (7450–5590 BP), an early Neolithic site in Pingtan Island located about 70 kilometres (43 mi) southeast of Fuzhou, numerous tools made of stones, shells, bones, jades, and ceramics (including wheel-made-ceramics) have been unearthed, together with spinning wheels, a definitive evidence of weaving.
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Harvard University
Harvard University is an American private Ivy League research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation (officially The President and Fellows of Harvard College) chartered in the country. Harvard's history, influence, and wealth have made it one of the most prestigious universities in the world.
Harvard was named after its first benefactor, John Harvard. Although never formally affiliated with a church, the college primarily trained Congregationalist and Unitarian clergy. Harvard's curriculum and students became secular throughout the 18th century and by the 19th century had emerged as the central cultural establishment among Boston elites. Following the American Civil War, President Charles W. Eliot's forty year tenure (1869–1909) transformed the college and affiliated professional schools into a centralized research university, and Harvard became a founding member of the Association of American Universities in 1900.James Bryant Conant led the university through the Great Depression and World War II and began to reform the curriculum and liberalize admissions after the war. The undergraduate college became coeducational after its 1977 merger with Radcliffe College. Drew Gilpin Faust was elected the 28th president in 2007 and is the first woman to lead the university. Harvard has the largest financial endowment of any academic institution in the world, standing at $32 billion as of September 2011.
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Hong Kong
Coordinates: 22°16′42″N 114°09′32″E / 22.27833°N 114.15889°E / 22.27833; 114.15889
Hong Kong (Chinese: 香港) is one of two special administrative regions (SARs) of the People's Republic of China (PRC), the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is known for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour. With a land mass of 1,104 km2 (426 sq mi) and a population of seven million people, Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Hong Kong's population is 95 percent ethnic Chinese and 5 percent from other groups. Hong Kong's Han Chinese majority originate mainly from the cities of Guangzhou and Taishan in the neighbouring Guangdong province.
Hong Kong became a colony of the British Empire after the First Opium War (1839–42). Originally confined to Hong Kong Island, the colony's boundaries were extended in stages to the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 and then the New Territories in 1898. It was occupied by Japan during the Pacific War, after which the British resumed control until 1997, when China resumed sovereignty. The region espoused minimum government intervention under the ethos of positive non-interventionism during the colonial era. The time period greatly influenced the current culture of Hong Kong, often described as "East meets West", and the educational system, which used to loosely follow the system in England until reforms implemented in 2009.
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India
India (i/ˈɪndiə/), officially the Republic of India (Bhārat Gaṇarājya), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the south-west, and the Bay of Bengal on the south-east, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west;China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north-east; and Burma and Bangladesh to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; in addition, India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia.
Home to the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation and a region of historic trade routes and vast empires, the Indian subcontinent was identified with its commercial and cultural wealth for much of its long history. Four of the world's major religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism—originated here, whereas Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived in the 1st millennium CE and also helped shape the region's diverse culture. Gradually annexed by and brought under the administration of the British East India Company from the early 18th century and administered directly by the United Kingdom from the mid-19th century, India became an independent nation in 1947 after a struggle for independence that was marked by non-violent resistance led by Mahatma Gandhi.
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Indonesia
Indonesia (i/ˌɪndəˈniːʒə/ IN-də-NEE-zhə or /ˌɪndoʊˈniːziə/ IN-doh-NEE-zee-ə), officially the Republic of Indonesia (Indonesian: Republik Indonesia Indonesian pronunciation: [rɛpʊblɪk ɪndɔnɛsɪa]), is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 17,508 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an elected legislature and president. The nation's capital city is Jakarta. The country shares land borders with Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Malaysia. Other neighboring countries include Singapore, Philippines, Australia, and the Indian territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Indonesia is a founding member of ASEAN and a member of the G-20 major economies. The Indonesian economy is the world's 17th largest economy by nominal GDP.
The Indonesian archipelago has been an important trade region since at least the 7th century, when Srivijaya and then later Majapahit traded with China and India. Local rulers gradually absorbed foreign cultural, religious and political models from the early centuries CE, and Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms flourished. Indonesian history has been influenced by foreign powers drawn to its natural resources. Muslim traders brought Islam, and European powers brought Christianity and fought one another to monopolize trade in the Spice Islands of Maluku during the Age of Discovery. Following three and a half centuries of Dutch colonialism, Indonesia secured its independence after World War II. Indonesia's history has since been turbulent, with challenges posed by natural disasters, corruption, separatism, a democratization process, and periods of rapid economic change.
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Japan
Japani/dʒəˈpæn/ (Japanese: 日本 Nihon or Nippon; formally 日本国 
Nippon-koku or Nihon-koku, literally the State of Japan) is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south. The characters that make up Japan's name mean "sun-origin", which is why Japan is sometimes referred to as the "Land of the Rising Sun".
Japan is an archipelago of 6,852 islands. The four largest islands are Honshū, Hokkaidō, Kyūshū and Shikoku, together accounting for ninety-seven percent of Japan's land area. Japan has the world's tenth-largest population, with over 127 million people. The Greater Tokyo Area, which includes the de facto capital city of Tokyo and several surrounding prefectures, is the largest metropolitan area in the world, with over 30 million residents.
Archaeological research indicates that people lived in Japan as early as the Upper Paleolithic period. The first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other nations followed by long periods of isolation has characterized Japan's history. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, victory in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War and World War I allowed Japan to expand its empire during a period of increasing militarism. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Since adopting its revised constitution in 1947, Japan has maintained a unitary constitutional monarchy with an emperor and an elected parliament called the Diet.
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Laos
Laos ((i/ˈlaʊs/, /ˈlɑː.ɒs/, /ˈlɑː.oʊs/, or /ˈleɪ.ɒs/) Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, pronounced [sǎː.tʰáː.laʔ.naʔ.lat páʔ.sáː.tʰiʔ.páʔ.tàj páʔ.sáː.són.láːw] Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west. Its population was estimated to be 6.5 million in 2012.
Laos traces its history to the Kingdom which existed from the 14th to the 18th century when it split into three separate kingdoms. In 1893, it became a French protectorate, with the three kingdoms, Luang Phrabang, Vientiane and Champasak, uniting to form what is now known as Laos. It briefly gained independence in 1945 after Japanese occupation, but returned to French rule until it was granted autonomy in 1949. Laos became independent in 1953, with a constitutional monarchy under Sisavang Vong. Shortly after independence, a long civil war ended the monarchy, when the Communist Pathet Lao movement came to power in 1975.
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Malaysia
Malaysia (i/məˈleɪʒə/ mə-LAY-zhə or i/məˈleɪsiə/ mə-LAY-see-ə) is a federal constitutional monarchy in Southeast Asia. It consists of thirteen states and three federal territories and has a total landmass of 329,847 square kilometres (127,350 sq mi) separated by the South China Sea into two similarly sized regions, Peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo. Land borders are shared with Thailand, Indonesia, and Brunei, and maritime borders exist with Singapore, Vietnam, and the Philippines. The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government. In 2010 the population exceeded 27.5 million, with over 20 million living on the Peninsula.
Malaysia has its origins in the Malay Kingdoms present in the area which, from the 18th century, became subject to the British Empire. The first British territories were known as the Straits Settlements, whose establishment was followed by the Malay kingdoms becoming British protectorates. The territories on Peninsular Malaysia were first unified as the Malayan Union in 1946. Malaya was restructured as the Federation of Malaya in 1948, and achieved independence on 31 August 1957. Malaya united with Sabah, Sarawak, and Singapore on 16 September 1963, with si being added to give the new country the name Malaysia. However, less than two years later in 1965, Singapore was expelled from the federation. Since independence, Malaysia has had one of the best economic records in Asia, with GDP growing an average 6.5% for almost 50 years. The economy has traditionally been fuelled by its natural resources, but is expanding in the sectors of science, tourism, commerce and medical tourism.
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Mexico
Mexico (i/ˈmɛksɨkoʊ/; Spanish: México, IPA: [ˈmexiko] ( listen)), officially the United Mexican States (Spanish: Estados Unidos Mexicanos (help·info)), is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States of America; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost two million square kilometres (over 760,000 sq mi), Mexico is the fifth largest country in the Americas by total area and the thirteenth largest independent nation in the world. With an estimated population of over 113 million, it is the eleventh most populous country and the most populous Spanish-speaking country. Mexico is a federation comprising thirty-one states and a Federal District, the capital city.
In Pre-Columbian Mexico many cultures matured into advanced civilizations such as the Olmec, the Toltec, the Teotihuacan, the Zapotec, the Maya and the Aztec before the first contact with Europeans. In 1521, Spain conquered and colonized the territory from its base in México-Tenochtitlan, which was administered as the Viceroyalty of New Spain. This territory would eventually become Mexico as the colony's independence was recognized in 1821. The post-independence period was characterized by economic instability, the Mexican-American War and territorial cession to the United States, a civil war, two empires and a domestic dictatorship. The latter led to the Mexican Revolution in 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the country's current political system. Elections held in July 2000 marked the first time that an opposition party won the presidency from the Institutional Revolutionary Party.
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New Zealand
New Zealand (Māori: Aotearoa) is an island country located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses ‒ that of the North and South Islands ‒ as well as numerous smaller islands. New Zealand is situated some 1,500 kilometres (900 mi) east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and roughly 1,000 kilometres (600 mi) south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. Because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans.
During its long isolation, New Zealand developed a distinctive biodiversity of both animal and plant life. Most notable are the large number of unique bird species, many of which became extinct after the arrival of humans and introduced mammals. With a mild maritime climate, the land was mostly covered in forest. The country's varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions caused by the Pacific and Indo-Australian Plates clashing beneath the earth's surface.
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Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea (PNG; Tok Pisin: Papua Niugini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands (the western portion of the island is a part of the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua). It is located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, in a region defined since the early 19th century as Melanesia. The capital is Port Moresby.
Papua New Guinea is one of the most culturally diverse countries on Earth. According to recent data, 841 different languages are listed for the country, although 11 of these have no known living speakers. . (A detailed series of language maps of Papua New Guinea may be found at Ethnologue) There may be at least as many traditional societies,out of a population of about 6.2 million. It is also one of the most rural, as only 18% of its people live in urban centres. The country is one of the world's least explored, culturally and geographically, and many undiscovered species of plants and animals are thought to exist in the interior of Papua New Guinea.
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Philippines
The Philippinesi/ˈfɪlɨpiːnz/ FI-lə-peenz (Filipino: Pilipinas [ˌpɪlɪˈpinɐs]), officially known as the Republic of the Philippines (Filipino: Republika ng Pilipinas) is a sovereign country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam. The Sulu Sea to the southwest lies between the country and the island of Borneo, and to the south the Celebes Sea separates it from other islands of Indonesia. It is bounded on the east by the Philippine Sea. Its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire and its tropical climate make the Philippines prone to earthquakes and typhoons but have also endowed the country with natural resources and made it one of the richest areas of biodiversity in the world. An archipelago comprising 7,107 islands, the Philippines is categorized broadly into three main geographical divisions: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Its capital city is Manila.
With an estimated population of about 98 million people, the Philippines is the 7th most populated Asian country and the 12th most populated country in the world. An additional 12.5 million Filipinos live overseas. Multiple ethnicities and cultures are found throughout the islands. In prehistoric times, Negritos were some of the archipelago's earliest inhabitants. They were followed by successive waves of Austronesian peoples who brought with them influences from Malay, Hindu, and Islamic societies. Trade introduced Chinese cultural influences which remain to this day.
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Russia
Russiai/ˈrʌʃə/ or /ˈrʊʃə/ (Russian: Россия, tr. Rossiya; IPA: [rɐˈsʲijə] ( listen)), also officially known as the Russian Federation (Russian: Российская Федерация, tr. Rossiyskaya Federatsiya; IPA: [rɐˈsʲijskəjə fʲɪdʲɪˈratsɨjə] ( listen)), is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects. From northwest to southeast, Russia shares borders with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland (both via Kaliningrad Oblast), Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea. It also has maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, and the US state of Alaska by the Bering Strait. At 17,075,400 square kilometres (6,592,800 sq mi), Russia is the largest country in the world, covering more than one eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area. Russia is also the eighth most populous nation with 143 million people. It extends across the whole of northern Asia and 40% of Europe, spanning nine time zones and incorporating a wide range of environments and landforms. Russia has the world's largest reserves of mineral and energy resources and is the largest producer of oil and natural gas globally. Russia has the world's largest forest reserves and its lakes contain approximately one-quarter of the world's fresh water.
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Sentosa
Sentosa is a popular island resort in Singapore, visited by some five million people a year. Attractions include a 2 km (1.2 mi) long sheltered beach, Fort Siloso, two golf courses, two five-star hotels, and the Resorts World Sentosa, featuring the theme park Universal Studios Singapore.
The name Sentosa translates as "peace and tranquility" in Malay (derived from Santosha in Sanskrit). Sentosa was once known as Pulau Belakang Mati (Chinese: 绝后岛), which in Malay means the "Island (pulau) of Death (mati) from Behind (belakang)".
The name Blakang Mati is rather old but may not have been founded in the nineteenth century as generally believed. In fact, there exists an island that was identified as Blacan Mati in Manuel Gomes de Erédia's 1604 map of Singapore. Other early references to the island of Blakang Mati include Burne Beard Island in Wilde's 1780 MS map, Pulau Niry, Nirifa from 1690 to 1700, and the nineteenth century reference as Pulau Panjang (J.H. Moor). However, early maps did not separate Blakang Mati from the adjacent island of Pulau Brani, so it is uncertain to which island the sixteenth century place names referred.
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Singapore
Singapore (i/ˈsɪŋəpɔər/ SI-ngə-pohr), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, 137 kilometres (85 mi) north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the Singapore Strait to its south. Singapore is highly urbanised but almost half of the country is covered by greenery. More land is being created for development through land reclamation.
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South Korea
South Korea ( listen), officially the Republic of Korea (Hangul: 대한민국; Hanja: 大韓民國; Daehan Minguk listen), is a sovereign state in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula. The name "Korea" is derived from Goryeo, a dynasty which ruled in the Middle Ages (an initial "G" in Korean is pronounced like an English "K").
Its neighbors are China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the Korea Strait to the south. South Korea lies in the north temperate zone with a predominantly mountainous terrain. It covers a total area of 99,392 square kilometers and has a population of almost 50 million. The capital and largest city is Seoul, with a population of 9,794,304.
Archaeological findings show that the Korean Peninsula was occupied by the Lower Paleolithic period.Korean history begins with the founding of Gojoseon in 2333 BC by the legendary Dan-gun. Following the unification of the Three Kingdoms of Korea under Silla 668 AD, Korea went through the Goryeo Dynasty and Joseon Dynasty as one nation until the end of the Korean Empire in 1910, when it was annexed by Japan. After liberation and occupation by Soviet and U.S. forces at the end of World War II, the nation was divided into North and South Korea. The latter was established in 1948 as a democracy, though political turmoil and times of military rule and martial law characterized much of the period until the foundation of the Sixth Republic in 1987.
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Taiwan
Taiwan (i/ˌtaɪˈwɑːn/ TY-WAHN; Chinese: 臺灣 or 台灣; pinyin: Táiwān; see below), officially the Republic of China (ROC; Chinese: 中華民國; pinyin: Zhōnghuá Mínguó), is a state in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China now governs the island of Taiwan (formerly known as Formosa), which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu, and other minor islands. Neighboring states include the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east and northeast, and the Philippines to the south. Taipei is the capital city and economic and cultural centre of the country, and New Taipei is the most populous city.
The earliest evidence of inhabitation of Taiwan dates back to the late Paleolithic era. The island of Taiwan was mainly inhabited by Taiwanese aborigines before being colonized in the 17th century by the Dutch and the Spanish Empire. The first Han Chinese polity on Taiwan began when Koxinga's troops defeated Dutch forces and established the Kingdom of Tungning. The island was subsequently ruled by the Qing Dynasty after the kingdom's defeat in the Battle of Penghu in 1683, a period that lasted for over 200 years. Following Japan's victory over the Qing Dynasty in the first Sino-Japanese war, Taiwan was ceded to Japan under the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895.
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Thailand
Thailand ( /ˈtaɪlænd/ TY-land or /ˈtaɪlənd/;Thai: ประเทศไทย, RTGS: Prathet Thai), officially the Kingdom of Thailand (Thai: ราชอาณาจักรไทย, RTGS: Ratcha Anachak Thai; IPA: [râːt.tɕʰā ʔāːnāːtɕàk tʰāj] (
listen)), formerly known as Siam (Thai: สยาม; RTGS: Sayam), is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and the southern extremity of Burma. Its maritime boundaries include Vietnam in the Gulf of Thailand to the southeast, and Indonesia and India in the Andaman Sea to the southwest.
The country is a constitutional monarchy, headed by King Rama IX, the ninth king of the House of Chakri, who, having reigned since 1946, is the world's longest-serving head of state and the longest-reigning monarch in Thai history. The king of Thailand is titled Head of State, Head of the Armed Forces, the Upholder of the Buddhist religion, and the Defender of all Faiths.
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Tong'an District
Tong'an District (simplified Chinese: 同安区; traditional Chinese: 同安區; pinyin: Tóng'ān Qū; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tâng-oaⁿ-khu) is a northern mainland district of Xiamen which faces Kinmen. To the north is Anxi and Nan'an, and to the south is Jimei. Tong'an is also east of Lianxiang and Changqin to the West. It covers 657.59 square kilometres (253.90 sq mi)
Tong'an District has a population of 520,000 residents.[when?]
Tong’an District administers two subdistricts: Datong and Xiang Ping. It has local authority over six towns. They are Hongtang, Wuxian, Dingxi, Xinming, Xike and Lianhua.
Tong'an District is also attracting foreign investment because of its status as a designated special economic zone in Xiamen.
Tong'an was made a county in AD 282 during the Jin Dynasty, but its status was revoked not long after. It was again given "county" status in AD 933 under the Later Tang Dynasty administration.
Prior to 1914, its jurisdiction covered regions including present day Xiamen City, Jinmen County and the north-eastern part of Longhai City. In May 1997, Tong'an lost its county status and became a district within Xiamen.
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United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain) is a sovereign state located off the north-western coast of continental Europe. The country includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea.
The United Kingdom is a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system, with its seat of government in the capital city of London. It is a country in its own right and consists of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. There are three devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff, the capitals of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Associated with the UK, but not constitutionally part of it, are three Crown Dependencies. The United Kingdom has fourteen overseas territories. These are remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in 1922, encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land surface and was the largest empire in history. British influence can still be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former territories.
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United States
The United States of America (commonly abbreviated to the United States, the U.S., the USA, America, and the States) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west, across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Pacific and Caribbean.
At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km2) and with over 312 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest by both land area and population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The U.S. economy is the world's largest national economy, with an estimated 2011 GDP of $15.1 trillion (22% of nominal global GDP and over 19% of global GDP at purchasing-power parity). Per capita income is the world's sixth-highest.
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Vietnam
Vietnam ( listen), formally the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Cộng hòa xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam; listen), is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. With an estimated 91.5 million inhabitants as of 2012, it is the world's 13th-most-populous country, and the eighth-most-populous Asian country. The name Vietnam translates as "South Viet", and was officially adopted in 1945. The country is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea to the east.
The Vietnamese became independent from Imperial China in 938 AD, following the Battle of Bạch Đằng River. Successive Vietnamese royal dynasties flourished as the nation expanded geographically and politically into Southeast Asia, until the Indochina Peninsula was colonized by the French in the mid-19th century. The First Indochina War eventually led to the expulsion of the French in 1954, leaving Vietnam divided politically into two states, North and South Vietnam. Conflict between the two sides intensified, with heavy foreign intervention, during the Vietnam War, which ended with a North Vietnamese victory in 1975.
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Xiamen
Xiamen (Mandarin pronunciation: [ɕjâmə̌n]), also known as Amoy /əˈmɔɪ/, is a major city on the southeast (Taiwan Strait) coast of the People's Republic of China. It is administered as a sub-provincial city of Fujian province with an area of 1575.16 km2 and population of 3.61 million. Its built up area is now bigger than the old urban island area and covers now all 6 districts of Xiamen (Huli, Siming, Jimei, Tong'an, Haicang and recently Xiang'an), for a total of 3,531,147 inhabitants. It borders Quanzhou to the north and Zhangzhou making with this city a unique built up area of more than 5 million people. The Jinmen (Kinmen) Islands administered by the Republic of China (Taiwan) are less than 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) away.
Xiamen and the surrounding southern Fujian countryside are the ancestral home to large communities of overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia and Taiwan. The city was a treaty port in the 19th century and one of the four original Special Economic Zones opened to foreign investment and trade when China began economic reforms in the early 1980s. It is endowed with educational and cultural institutions supported by the overseas Chinese diaspora. In 2006, Xiamen was ranked as China's second 'most suitable city for living'.
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Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II (i/bəˈrɑːk huːˈseɪn oʊˈbɑːmə/; born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. In January 2005, Obama was sworn in as a U.S. Senator in the state of Illinois. He would hold this office until November 2008, when he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.
Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was the president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney in Chicago and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. He served three terms representing the 13th District in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004.
Following an unsuccessful bid against the Democratic incumbent for a seat in the United States House of Representatives in 2000, Obama ran for the United States Senate in 2004. Several events brought him to national attention during the campaign, including his victory in the March 2004 Illinois Democratic primary for the Senate election and his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004. He won election to the U.S. Senate in Illinois in November 2004. His presidential campaign began in February 2007, and after a close campaign in the 2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries against Hillary Rodham Clinton, he won his party's nomination. In the 2008 presidential election, he defeated Republican nominee John McCain, and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009. Nine months later, Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. In April 2011, he announced that he would be running for re-election in 2012.
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Benigno Aquino III
Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III (/bɛˈnɪɡnoʊ əˈkiːnoʊ/; [bɛˈniɡno aˈkino]; born February 8, 1960), also known as Noynoy Aquino or PNoy, is a Filipino politician who has been the 15th and current President of the Philippines since June 2010.
Aquino is a fourth-generation politician: his great-grandfather, Servillano "Mianong" Aquino, served as a delegate to the Malolos Congress; his grandfather, Benigno Aquino, Sr., served as Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines from 1943 to 1944; and his parents were President Corazon Aquino and Senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, Jr. Aquino is a member of the Liberal Party. In the Liberal Party, Aquino held various positions such as Secretary General and Vice President for Luzon. Aquino is currently the Chairman of the Liberal Party.
Born in Manila, Aquino graduated from Ateneo de Manila University in 1981 and joined his family in their exile in the United States shortly thereafter. He returned to the Philippines in 1983 shortly after the assassination of his father and held several positions working in the private sector. In 1998, he was elected to the House of Representatives as Representative of the 2nd district of Tarlac province. He was subsequently re-elected to the House in 2001 and 2004. In 2007, having been barred from running for re-election to the House due to term limits, he was elected to the Senate in the 14th Congress of the Philippines.
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Chan Chun Sing
Chan Chun Sing (simplified Chinese: 陈振声; traditional Chinese: 陳振聲; pinyin: Chén Zhènshēng, born 1969) is a politician from Singapore. A member of the country's governing People's Action Party (PAP), he is currently the Acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports, and a Minister of State at the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts. He has been a Member of Parliament (MP) representing the Tanjong Pagar Group Representation Constituency since the 2011 general election. Prior to entering politics, he served in the Singapore Armed Forces, where he rose to the rank of Major-General and served as Singapore's Chief of Army from 2010 to 2011.
Chan served in the Singapore Army from 1987 to 2011. His appointments included Commanding Officer of the 2nd Battalion, Singapore Infantry Regiment (1998-2000), Army Attaché in Jakarta (2001-03), Commander of the 10th Singapore Infantry Brigade (2003-04), Head of the Joint Plans and Transformation Department (2005-07), Commander of the 9th Division / Chief Infantry Officer (2007-09), and Chief of Staff - Joint Staff (2009-10).
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Chee Soon Juan
Chee Soon Juan (simplified Chinese: 徐顺全; traditional Chinese: 徐順全; pinyin: Xú Shùnquán, born 1962) is a politician and political activist from Singapore. He is currently the leader of the opposition Singapore Democratic Party (SDP).
A controversial political figure, Chee has been arrested and jailed several times for his political activities, mainly for repeatedly breaking Singapore's laws requiring organisers to obtain a police permit before staging political demonstrations or making public speeches on political issues. He has also been sued for defamation on multiple occasions as a result of comments he has made about members of Singapore's governing People's Action Party (PAP). He is currently barred from standing in parliamentary elections because he was declared bankrupt in 2006 after failing to pay damages from a lawsuit owed to Singapore's former Prime Ministers, Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Chok Tong.
Chee joined the SDP in 1992, and became its Secretary-General following the resignation of the party's founder, Chiam See Tong (with whom Chee and the rest of the party's leadership have had a number of disagreements). The party had three Members of Parliament (MPs) at the time Chee took over as Secretary-General, but was reduced to no MPs at the 1997 general election and has not had any of its members elected to Parliament since then.
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China
China (i/ˈtʃaɪnə/; Chinese: 中国; pinyin: Zhōngguó; see also Names of China), officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is the world's most-populous country, with a population of over 1.3 billion. Covering approximately 9.6 million square kilometres, the East Asian state is the world's second-largest country by land area, and the third- or fourth-largest in total area, depending on the definition of total area.
The People's Republic of China is a single-party state governed by the Communist Party of China. It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four directly controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing), and two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau). Its capital city is Beijing. The PRC also claims Taiwan—which is controlled by the Republic of China (ROC), a separate political entity—as its 23rd province, a claim controversial due to the complex political status of Taiwan and the unresolved Chinese Civil War. The PRC government denies the legitimacy of the ROC.
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Choummaly Sayasone
Lieutenant General Choummaly Sayasone (Lao: ຈູມມະລີ ໄຊຍະສອນ; born March 6, 1936 in Attapu) is General Secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party and President of the Lao People's Democratic Republic. He was elected as Party General Secretary on March 21, 2006, by the Party's 8th Congress, succeeding Khamtai Siphandon, and he subsequently succeeded Siphandon as President on June 8, 2006.
Choummaly joined the Party's Politburo in 1991 and served as Vice President from 2001 to 2006. He also served for a time as Minister of Defence (1991–2001).
In March 2011, he was retained his position as General Secretary of Revolutionary Party at the Ninth Party National Assembly. In June 2011, he was retained his position as President of Laos at the Seventh Lao National Assembly.
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Donald Tsang
Sir Donald Tsang Yam-kuen GBM, KBE (born 7 October 1944) is the current Chief Executive and President of the Executive Council of Hong Kong.
Tsang began his civil service career in 1967, occupying various positions in finance and trade in the Hong Kong Civil Service, and was appointed Financial Secretary of Hong Kong in 1995, becoming the first ethnic Chinese to hold the position under British administration. He remained in that position after the transfer of the sovereignty of Hong Kong before being appointed Chief Secretary for Administration after the resignation of Anson Chan. Tsang has won praise for his handling of the Hong Kong economy both as Chief Executive in the mid-2000s and as Financial Secretary in the late 1990s.
He assumed the office of Chief Executive of Hong Kong in 2005. Since his appointment, he has been criticised for the government's mishandling of a number of incidents, most notably the demolition of Queen's Pier, Political Appointments System, the Leung Chin-man appointment controversy, and the Employee Retraining Levy waiver controversy.
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Fujian province
Coordinates: 25°54′N 118°18′E / 25.9°N 118.3°E / 25.9; 118.3
Fujian (help·info) (Chinese: 福建), formerly romanised as Fukien or Foukien, is a province on the southeast coast of mainland China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, and Guangdong to the south. Taiwan lies to the east, across the Taiwan Strait. The name Fujian came from the combination of Fuzhou and Jianzhou (a former name for Jian'ou) two cities in Fujian, during the Tang Dynasty. With a Han majority, it is one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse provinces in China.
Most of Fujian is administered by the People's Republic of China. However, the archipelagos of Kinmen and Matsu are under the control of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Thus, there are two provinces (in the sense of government organizations): the Fujian Province administered by the People's Republic of China and the Fujian Province of the Republic of China.
Recent archaeological discoveries demonstrate that Fujian had entered the Neolithic Age by the middle of the 6th millennium BC. From the Keqiutou site (7450–5590 BP), an early Neolithic site in Pingtan Island located about 70 kilometres (43 mi) southeast of Fuzhou, numerous tools made of stones, shells, bones, jades, and ceramics (including wheel-made-ceramics) have been unearthed, together with spinning wheels, a definitive evidence of weaving.
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Gan Kim Yong
Gan Kim Yong (born 9 February 1959; simplified Chinese: 颜金勇; traditional Chinese: 顏金勇; pinyin: Yán Jīnyǒng; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Gân Kim-ióng) is a politician from Singapore. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he has been Minister for Health since May 2011. He previously served as the Minister for Manpower from 2008 to 2011. He has been a Member of Parliament (MP) since 2001.
Gan began his career as a civil servant at the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Home Affairs. He left the civil service for the private sector in 1989 and joined NatSteel Ltd. In 1996, he was made the Executive Vice-President of NatSteel and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NatSteel Resorts International and NatSteel Properties. In 2005, he became the President and CEO of NatSteel.
Gan was elected a Member of Parliament for the Holland-Bukit Panjang Group Representation Constituency in 2001.
In 2005, Gan was appointed a Minister of State at the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Manpower.
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George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 and the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000. The eldest son of Barbara Bush and George H. W. Bush, he was born in New Haven, Connecticut. After graduating from Yale University in 1968 and Harvard Business School in 1975, Bush worked in oil businesses. He married Laura Welch in 1977 and ran unsuccessfully for the House of Representatives shortly thereafter. He later co-owned the Texas Rangers baseball team before defeating Ann Richards in the 1994 Texas gubernatorial election. In a close and controversial election, Bush was elected President in 2000 as the Republican candidate, defeating Vice President Al Gore in the Electoral College. Bush is the second American president to have been the son of a former president. He is also the brother of Jeb Bush, former Governor of Florida.
Terrorist attacks occurred eight months into Bush's first term as president on September 11, 2001. In response, Bush announced the War on Terror, an international military campaign which included the war in Afghanistan launched in 2001 and the war in Iraq launched in 2003. In addition to national security issues, Bush promoted policies on the economy, health care, education, and social security reform. He signed into law broad tax cuts, the PATRIOT Act, the No Child Left Behind Act, the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, and Medicare prescription drug benefits for seniors. His tenure saw national debates on immigration, Social Security, electronic surveillance, and enhanced interrogation techniques. His administration also withdrew the U.S. from a some international treaty processes, including the Kyoto Protocol on global warming.
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George Yeo
George Yeo Yong-Boon (simplified Chinese: 杨荣文; traditional Chinese: 楊榮文; pinyin: Yáng Róngwén; born 13 September 1954) is a former politician from Singapore. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he served in the Cabinet from 1991 to 2011 as the Minister for Information and the Arts (1991–99), Minister for Health (1994–97), Minister for Trade and Industry (1999–2004) and Minister for Foreign Affairs (2004–11). However he lost his seat in Parliament at the 2011 general election when the PAP's team in the Aljunied Group Representation Constituency was defeated by the team from the Workers' Party, following which he announced that he was retiring from politics.
Prior to entering Parliament, Yeo was a Brigadier-General in the Republic of Singapore Air Force. He served as the Chief-of-Staff of the Air Staff from 1985 to 1986, and as the Director of Joint Operations and Planning at the Ministry of Defence from 1986 to 1988.
Yeo received his primary school education at St. Stephen's School. He studied at St. Joseph's Institution and finished his O-Levels at the top of the class in 1970. As a President's Scholar and Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Scholar, he graduated from Cambridge University with a degree in engineering in 1976.
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George Yeo Yong-Boon
George Yeo Yong-Boon (simplified Chinese: 杨荣文; traditional Chinese: 楊榮文; pinyin: Yáng Róngwén; born 13 September 1954) is a former politician from Singapore. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he served in the Cabinet from 1991 to 2011 as the Minister for Information and the Arts (1991–99), Minister for Health (1994–97), Minister for Trade and Industry (1999–2004) and Minister for Foreign Affairs (2004–11). However he lost his seat in Parliament at the 2011 general election when the PAP's team in the Aljunied Group Representation Constituency was defeated by the team from the Workers' Party, following which he announced that he was retiring from politics.
Prior to entering Parliament, Yeo was a Brigadier-General in the Republic of Singapore Air Force. He served as the Chief-of-Staff of the Air Staff from 1985 to 1986, and as the Director of Joint Operations and Planning at the Ministry of Defence from 1986 to 1988.
Yeo received his primary school education at St. Stephen's School. He studied at St. Joseph's Institution and finished his O-Levels at the top of the class in 1970. As a President's Scholar and Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Scholar, he graduated from Cambridge University with a degree in engineering in 1976.
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Goh Chok Tong
Goh Chok Tong (born 20 May 1941) was the second Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore. A member of the People's Action Party (PAP), he became Prime Minister on 28 November 1990, succeeding Lee Kuan Yew, and served in the role until 12 August 2004, when he stepped down and was succeeded by Lee Hsien Loong. He subsequently served as Singapore's Senior Minister until May 2011, and as the Chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore. He continues to serve as a Member of Parliament (MP) representing the Marine Parade Group Representation Constituency and holds the honorary title of "Emeritus Senior Minister".
Goh Chok Tong's father was from Yongchun county of Fujian province in China, while he was born in Singapore and his family belongs to the Hokkien dialect group, now more commonly known as Minnan. Goh studied at Raffles Institution from 1955 to 1960. He was a very competitive swimmer in his younger days and was given the nickname Panjang (which means "Tall".[citation needed]
Goh earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with First Class Honours in Economics from the University of Singapore, and a Master of Arts in Development Economics from Williams College in the United States in 1967. After his studies, Goh returned to Singapore to serve in the Administrative Service.
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Heng Swee Keat
Heng Swee Keat (Chinese: 王瑞杰; pinyin: Wáng Ruìjié) is a politician from Singapore. A member of the country's governing People's Action Party (PAP), he has served in the Cabinet as the Minister for Education since May 2011. He has been a Member of Parliament (MP) representing the Tampines Group Representation Constituency since the 2011 general election.
Prior to his election to Parliament, Heng served as the Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore from 2005 to 2011.
Heng began his career in the Singapore Police Force in 1983. He then joined the Singapore Civil Service's Administrative Service in 1997. He served a period at the Ministry of Education, before being appointed the Principal Private Secretary to former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew (who was Singapore's Senior Minister at the time) in 1997. In 2001, Heng became the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Trade and Industry. He then served as Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore from 2005 to 2011.
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Ho Ching
Ho Ching (Chinese: 何晶; pinyin: Hé Jīng; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Hô Ching) is the Chief Executive Officer of Temasek Holdings (over US$100 billion in assets and owned by Singapore's Ministry of Finance) and the wife of the Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong (son of former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew). As a Chinese Singaporean, Ho hails from the Cantonese language group.
Ho graduated from the National University of Singapore in 1976 with a Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical, First Class Honours) after completing her pre-university education at National Junior College where she emerged as a Student of the Year and was a President's Scholar. She graduated from Crescent Girls' School. She also holds a Master of Science (Electrical) from Stanford University, USA. In 1995, Ho was conferred the Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award. She is also an Honorary Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, Singapore.
She is the eldest child of four children of retired businessman Ho Eng Hong and Chan Chiew Ping. In 17 December 1985, she married Lee Hsien Loong, who later became Singapore's third Prime Minister in August 2004.
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Hong Kong
Coordinates: 22°16′42″N 114°09′32″E / 22.27833°N 114.15889°E / 22.27833; 114.15889
Hong Kong (Chinese: 香港) is one of two special administrative regions (SARs) of the People's Republic of China (PRC), the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is known for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour. With a land mass of 1,104 km2 (426 sq mi) and a population of seven million people, Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Hong Kong's population is 95 percent ethnic Chinese and 5 percent from other groups. Hong Kong's Han Chinese majority originate mainly from the cities of Guangzhou and Taishan in the neighbouring Guangdong province.
Hong Kong became a colony of the British Empire after the First Opium War (1839–42). Originally confined to Hong Kong Island, the colony's boundaries were extended in stages to the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 and then the New Territories in 1898. It was occupied by Japan during the Pacific War, after which the British resumed control until 1997, when China resumed sovereignty. The region espoused minimum government intervention under the ethos of positive non-interventionism during the colonial era. The time period greatly influenced the current culture of Hong Kong, often described as "East meets West", and the educational system, which used to loosely follow the system in England until reforms implemented in 2009.
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Hu Jintao
Hu Jintao (Pinyin: Hú Jǐntāo, pronounced [xǔ tɕìntʰɑ́ʊ]; born 21 December 1942) is the current Paramount leader of the People's Republic of China. He has held the titles of General Secretary of the Communist Party of China since 2002, President of the People's Republic of China since 2003, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission since 2004, succeeding Jiang Zemin as the chief of the fourth generation of leadership of the Communist Party of China.
Hu has been involved in the Communist party bureaucracy for most of his adult life, notably as Party secretary for Guizhou province and the Tibet Autonomous Region, and then later first Secretary of the CPC Secretariat and Vice-President under former leader Jiang Zemin. Hu is the first leader of the Communist Party without any significant revolutionary credentials. As such, his rise to the presidency represented China's transition of leadership from establishment communists to younger, more pragmatic technocrats.
During his term in office, Hu has reintroduced state control in some sectors of the economy that were relaxed by the previous administration, and has been conservative with political reforms. Along with his colleague, Premier Wen Jiabao, Hu presided over nearly a decade of consistent economic growth and development that cemented China as a major world power. He sought to improve socio-economic equality domestically through the Scientific Development Concept, which aimed to build a "Harmonious Society" that was prosperous and free of social conflict. Meanwhile, Hu kept a tight lid on China politically, cracking down on social disturbances, ethnic minority protests, and dissident figures. In foreign policy, Hu advocated for "China's peaceful development", pursuing soft power in international relations and a business-oriented approach to diplomacy. Through Hu's tenure, China's influence in Africa, Latin America, and other developing countries has increased.
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Hu Tsu Tau Richard
Richard Hu Tsu Tau (Chinese: 胡赐道; pinyin: Hú Cìdào, born October 30, 1926) is a former Singaporean politician. A member of the People's Action Party (PAP), he served as the Minister of Finance for 16 years from 1985 to 2001 . He is currently the Chairman of the Singaporean property development company Capitaland, the largest real estate development company in Southeast Asia (by market capitalization), with its headquarters in Singapore.
Hu obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from the University of California in the United States and subsequently pursued a postgraduate diploma and a doctorate degree in Chemical Engineering, both from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom.
He joined the Royal Dutch Shell Group of Companies in 1960 and rose to the position of Chairman and Chief Executive of this global company in Singapore. In 1983, Hu became the Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC), holding both posts concurrently until 1984.
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Hun Sen
Hun Sen (Khmer: ហ៊ុន សែន; born 5 August 1952) is the current Prime Minister of Cambodia and leader of the Cambodian People's Party (CPP), which has governed Cambodia since the Vietnamese-backed overthrow of the Khmer Rouge in 1979. Since the restoration of multi-party democracy in 1993, the CPP has been in a coalition with the royalist Funcinpec party.
His current, full, honorary title is Samdech Akeak Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen (Khmer: សម្តេចអគ្គមហាសេនាបតីតេជោ ហ៊ុន សែន). The title "Samdech" was attached to his name in 1993 by King Norodom Sihanouk. It is only an honorary title and does not give him further powers. He has a glass eye, the result of a wound sustained during the Khmer Rouge offensive against Phnom Penh in April 1975. Hun Sen is currently the longest serving leader in South East Asia and is one of the longest serving prime ministers in the world, having been in power through various coalitions since 1985.
Hun Sen came to power with the Khmer Rouge and served as a Battalion Commander in the Eastern Region of Democratic Kampuchea (previous name of Cambodia). After falling out with the Khmer Rouge Hun Sen fled to Vietnam. Hun Sen was selected by the Vietnamese for a leadership role in the rebel army and government they were creating for Cambodia. When the Khmer Rouge regime was overthrown, Hun Sen was appointed as Foreign Minister of the Vietnamese-installed People's Republic of Kampuchea/State of Cambodia (PRK/SOC) in 1979 and in 1985 he was made Chairman of the Council of Ministers and Prime Minister, after the death of Chairman Chan Sy until 1990, (with a brief interruption from 1986 until 1987). As Foreign Minister, Hun Sen was a key figure in the Paris Peace Talks, which brokered peace in Cambodia.
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John Key
John Phillip Key (born 9 August 1961) is the 38th Prime Minister of New Zealand, in office since 2008. He has led the New Zealand National Party since 2006.
Born in Auckland before moving to Christchurch when he was a child, Key attended the University of Canterbury and graduated in 1981 with a bachelor of commerce, also later undertaking management studies at Harvard University in Boston. He began a career in the foreign exchange market in New Zealand before moving overseas to work for Merrill Lynch, in which he became head of global foreign exchange in 1995, a position he would hold for six years. In 1999 he was appointed a member of the Foreign Exchange Committee of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York until leaving in 2001.
Key entered the New Zealand Parliament representing the Auckland electorate of Helensville as one of the few new National members of parliament in the election of 2002 following National's significant defeat of that year. He has held the seat since then. In 2004, he was appointed Finance Spokesman for National and eventually succeeded Don Brash as the National Party leader in 2006. After two years as Leader of the Opposition, Key led his party to victory in both the November 2008 and the November 2011 general elections.
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Julia Gillard
Julia Eileen Gillard (born 29 September 1961) is the 27th and current Prime Minister of Australia, in office since 24 June 2010.
Gillard was born in Barry, Wales and migrated with her family to Adelaide, Australia in 1966, attending Mitcham Demonstration School and Unley High School. In 1982 Gillard moved to Melbourne. She graduated from the University of Melbourne with Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws degrees in 1986. In 1987, Gillard joined the law firm Slater & Gordon working in industrial law, before entering politics.
Gillard was elected at the 1998 federal election to the House of Representatives seat of Lalor, Victoria, for the Australian Labor Party. Following the 2001 federal election, Gillard was elected to the shadow cabinet with the portfolios of Population and Immigration. The Reconciliation and Indigenous Affairs and the Health portfolios were added in 2003. In December 2006, Kevin Rudd was elected Labor leader and Leader of the Opposition, with Gillard as deputy leader.
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K. Shanmugam
Kasiviswanathan Shanmugam (Tamil: காசிவிஸ்வநாதன் சண்முகம்; born 1959) better known as "K. Shanmugam", is a politician and lawyer from Singapore. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he is currently the country's Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Law, and a Member of Parliament representing Nee Soon Group Representation Constituency.
After being admitted to the Singapore Bar as an advocate and solicitor in 1985, Shanmugam went into private practice and became a Senior Partner and Head of Litigation and Dispute Resolution at the Singapore law firm Allen & Gledhill.
Shanmugam had a successful practice and was consistently recognised in various international publications as one of the top litigation, arbitration and insolvency Counsel in Asia. While he was in private practice, he regularly handled trial work in major corporate, commercial, insolvency disputes for private and public listed companies, major international and Singaporean banking and finaicial institutions, multinational corporations and professional practices.
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Khaw Boon Wan
Khaw Boon Wan (simplified Chinese: 许文远; traditional Chinese: 許文遠; pinyin: Xǔ Wényuǎn; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Khóo Bûn-uán; born 8 December 1952 in Penang, Malaya) is a politician from Singapore. Since 2011, he has been Minister for National Development and the Chairman of the governing People's Action Party (PAP). He was previously the Minister for Health from August 2004 to May 2011. He has been a Member of Parliament (MP) since 2001.
Khaw began his career in the civil service. He worked in the Ministry of Health and served as the Chief Executive Officer of the National University Hospital, Kandang Kerbau Women's and Children's Hospital, and the Singapore General Hospital.
From 1992 to 1995, Khaw served as the Principal Private Secretary to Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong. From 1995 to 2001, he served as the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
Khaw has been a Member of Parliament since 2001. He represented the Tanjong Pagar Group Representation Constituency from 2001 to 2006, and the Sembawang Group Representation Constituency since 2006.
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Koh Buck Song
Koh, Buck Song is a writer, editor and consultant in branding, communications strategy and corporate social responsibility in Singapore.
Koh, Buck Song is the author and editor of 20 books. His non-fiction books include:
His four books of poetry are:
The anthologies he has edited include:
His works have been included in anthologies such as the following:
Koh is also the principal analyst and author of:
Born in Singapore in 1963, Koh is an alumnus of the University of Cambridge and the University of London in the United Kingdom, and of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in the USA, where he was a Mason Fellow and earned a master's degree in public administration. He studied leadership at the Kennedy School under Ronald Heifetz and also at Harvard Business School under Warren Bennis.
He was with The Straits Times from 1988 to 1999, where he was literary editor, political supervisor and chief Parliament commentator, arts and features supervisor, and Assistant Editor of a weekly world affairs section. His regular opinion column, Monday With Koh Buck Song, ran for over 10 years. He also launched and anchored the column This Week In Politics. From 2003 to 2004, he was a contributing columnist based in the USA for the Singapore newspaper Today, on current affairs relating to the USA and Singapore. From 2004 to 2005, he was a regular columnist on the theory and practice of leadership for The Straits Times. He worked for the Singapore Economic Development Board from 1999-2003 and 2004-05 in strategic planning and marketing & corporate communications. While there, he led a team to devise the "global entrepolis" concept to position Singapore internationally. Since then, he has worked as a consultant in branding, communications strategy and corporate social responsibility.
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Koh, Buck Song
Koh, Buck Song is a writer, editor and consultant in branding, communications strategy and corporate social responsibility in Singapore.
Koh, Buck Song is the author and editor of 20 books. His non-fiction books include:
His four books of poetry are:
The anthologies he has edited include:
His works have been included in anthologies such as the following:
Koh is also the principal analyst and author of:
Born in Singapore in 1963, Koh is an alumnus of the University of Cambridge and the University of London in the United Kingdom, and of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in the USA, where he was a Mason Fellow and earned a master's degree in public administration. He studied leadership at the Kennedy School under Ronald Heifetz and also at Harvard Business School under Warren Bennis.
He was with The Straits Times from 1988 to 1999, where he was literary editor, political supervisor and chief Parliament commentator, arts and features supervisor, and Assistant Editor of a weekly world affairs section. His regular opinion column, Monday With Koh Buck Song, ran for over 10 years. He also launched and anchored the column This Week In Politics. From 2003 to 2004, he was a contributing columnist based in the USA for the Singapore newspaper Today, on current affairs relating to the USA and Singapore. From 2004 to 2005, he was a regular columnist on the theory and practice of leadership for The Straits Times. He worked for the Singapore Economic Development Board from 1999-2003 and 2004-05 in strategic planning and marketing & corporate communications. While there, he led a team to devise the "global entrepolis" concept to position Singapore internationally. Since then, he has worked as a consultant in branding, communications strategy and corporate social responsibility.
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Lee Hsien Loong
Lee Hsien Loong (born 10 February 1952) is the third and current Prime Minister of Singapore, and the eldest son of Singapore's first Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew.
As a member of the People's Action Party (PAP), Lee became Prime Minister in August 2004, succeeding Goh Chok Tong. He has been a Member of Parliament (MP) since 1984 and a member of the Cabinet since 1987, and was one of the key leaders in Singapore's political transition in the 1980s and 1990s. Before becoming Prime Minister he served as the Minister for Trade and Industry, Minister for Finance and Deputy Prime Minister. Prior to his election to Parliament, he served as an officer in the Singapore Armed Forces, rising to the rank of Brigadier-General.
The eldest child of former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew and the late Madam Kwa Geok Choo, Lee Hsien Loong was born in Singapore on 10 February 1952. His paternal grandmother, Chua Jim Neo, was a Hokkien Nyonya, and his mother has ancestry from Tong'an District, Xiamen, in the Fujian province of China. According to Lee Kuan Yew's biography, the young Lee had learned Jawi script from the age of five, and has always been interested in the affairs of Singapore, often following his father to the rally grounds since 1963.
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Lee Kuan Yew
Lee Kuan Yew, GCMG CH (born 16 September 1923) is a Singaporean statesman. He was the first Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore, governing for three decades. By the time he stepped down, he had become the world's longest-serving Prime Minister.
As the co-founder and first secretary-general of the People's Action Party (PAP), he led the party to eight victories from 1959 to 1990, and oversaw the separation of Singapore from Malaysia in 1965 and its subsequent transformation from a relatively underdeveloped colonial outpost with no natural resources into a "First World" Asian Tiger. He is one of the most influential political figures in South-East Asia.
Singapore's second prime minister, Goh Chok Tong, appointed him as Senior Minister in 1990. He held the advisory post of Minister Mentor, created by his son, Lee Hsien Loong, when the latter became the nation's third prime minister in August 2004. With his successive ministerial positions spanning over 50 years, Lee is also one of history's longest-serving ministers. On 14 May 2011, Lee and Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong announced their retirement from the cabinet after the 2011 General Election.
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Lee Myung-bak
Lee Myung-bak (Hangul: 이명박; Hanja: 李明博; /ˌliː ˌmjʌŋ ˈbɑːk/; Korean: [i mjʌŋbak̚]; born 19 December 1941) is the President of South Korea. Prior to his presidency, he was the CEO of Hyundai Engineering and Construction and the mayor of Seoul. He is married to Kim Yoon-ok and has three daughters and one son. His older brother is Lee Sang-deuk, a South Korean politician. He attends the Somang Presbyterian Church. Lee is a graduate of Korea University and also received an honorary degree from Paris Diderot University on May 13, 2011.
Lee altered the South Korean government's approach to North Korea, preferring a more hardline strategy in the wake of increased provocation from the North, but is also supportive of regional dialogue with Russia, China, and Japan. Under Lee, South Korea has been increasing its visibility and influence in the global scene, resulting in the hosting of the 2010 G-20 Seoul summit. However, there remains significant controversy in Korea in regards to high profile government initiatives which have caused some factions to engage in civil opposition and protests against the incumbent government and President Lee's Saenuri Party (formerly the Grand National Party). The reformist faction within the Saenuri Party is at odds against Lee Myung-bak.
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Lim Hng Kiang
Lim Hng Kiang (simplified Chinese: 林勋强; traditional Chinese: 林勛強; pinyin: Lín Xūnqiáng; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Lîm Hun-kiông, born 9 April 1954) is a politician from Singapore. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he is currently the country's Minister for Trade and Industry. He previously served as the Minister for National Development (1995–99), Minister for Health (1999–2003), and as a Minister in the Prime Minister's Office (2003–04). He has been a Member of Parliament (MP) since 1991.
Lim began his career in the Singapore Armed Forces. He later served as a Deputy Secretary at the Ministry of National Development, and as the Chief Executive Officer of the Housing and Development Board (HDB).
Lim was first elected to Parliament in 1991 as an MP for the Tanjong Pagar Group Representation Constituency. Since 1997, he has represented the West Coast Group Representation Constituency.
Lim was appointed a Minister of State at the Ministry of National Development in 1991. In 1994, he became the Acting Minister for National Development and Senior Minister of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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Lim Hwee Hua
Lim Hwee Hua (Chinese: 林惠华; pinyin: Lín Huìhuá; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Lîm Hūi-hôa, born 26 February 1959) is a former politician from Singapore. A member of the country's governing People's Action Party (PAP), she became the first woman to serve in Singapore's Cabinet when she was made a Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office in 2009. She also concurrently served as the Second Minister for Finance and Second Minister for Transport. However she lost her seat in Parliament at the 2011 general election when she was part of the PAP team which was defeated by the Workers' Party in the Aljunied Group Representation Constituency (GRC), following which she announced that she was retiring from politics.
Lim began her career as an Administrative Officer in the Ministries of Finance, Education and Law. In 1989, she joined Swiss Bank Corporation as an investment analyst and moved on to Jardine Fleming in 1992, where she served as Head of Research and Director of Business Development. In 2000, she joined Temasek Holdings first Managing Director of Corporate Stewardship and later, Managing Director of Strategic Relations.
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Lim Swee Say
Lim Swee Say (Chinese: 林瑞生; pinyin: Lín Ruìshēng, born 13 July 1954) is a politician from Singapore. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he has been a Cabinet Minister in the Prime Minister's Office since 2004 and Secretary-General of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) since 2007. He previously served as the Minister for the Environment from 2001 to 2004. He has been a Member of Parliament (MP) since 1996.
Lim was educated at Catholic High School and National Junior College, before being awarded a Singapore Armed Forces Scholarship in 1973 to study in the United Kingdom at Loughborough University. He graduated with a First Class Honours degree in Electronics, Computer and Systems Engineering in 1976. In 1991, Lim completed a Master's Degree in Management at Stanford University.
Lim served at Singapore's National Computer Board as Chief Executive from 1986 to 1991, and as Chairman from 1994 to 1998. He also served at Singapore's Economic Development Board as Deputy Managing Director based in New York City from 1991 to 1993, and as Managing Director from 1994 to 1996.
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Lui Tuck Yew
Lui Tuck Yew (simplified Chinese: 吕德耀; traditional Chinese: 呂德耀; pinyin: Lǚ Déyào; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Lū Tek-iāu) (born 16 August 1961) is a politician from Singapore. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he is currently the country's Transport Minister and Second Minister for Foreign Affairs. He previously served as the Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts from 2010 to 2011. He has been a Member of Parliament (MP) since 2006. Lui was formerly an officer in the Republic of Singapore Navy, where he rose to the rank of Rear Admiral, and served as Singapore's Chief of Navy from 1999 to 2003.
Lui began his career in the Republic of Singapore Navy. He became the Chief of Navy in 1999. He left the Navy in 2003, and was appointed the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Maritime and Port Authority (MPA). In 2004, he became the Deputy Secretary (Land) at the Ministry of Transport (he continued to concurrently serve as CEO of the MPA while holding this position). In 2005, Lui was appointed the CEO of the Housing and Development Board (HDB).
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Ma Ying-jeou
Ma Ying-jeou (traditional Chinese: 馬英九; simplified Chinese: 马英九; pinyin: Mǎ Yīngjiǔ; born July 13, 1950) is the 12th and 13th term President of the Republic of China (Taiwan), and the Chairman of the Kuomintang Party, also known as the Chinese Nationalist Party. Previous roles include Justice Minister (1993–96) and Mayor of Taipei (1998-06). He is also the current Chairman of the Kuomintang (KMT) having served in that role since 2005 stepping down for a period between 2007 and 2009. Ma first won the presidency by 58.45% of the popular vote in the presidential election of 2008, and was re-elected in 2012 with 51.6% of the vote. He was sworn into office as president on May 20, 2008, and sworn in as the Chairman of the Kuomintang on October 17, 2009.
Ma Ying-jeou was born in Kwong Wah Hospital in Kowloon, Hong Kong on 13 July 1950. He is of Hakka ancestry, originating from Hunan Province of China. In a family of five children, Ma was the only son.
Ma earned his LL.B. from National Taiwan University in 1972. He pursued further studies in the United States, first earning an LL.M. from New York University Law School in 1976 and then an S.J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1981.
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Mark Chen
Mark Chen Tang-shan (traditional Chinese: 陳唐山; simplified Chinese: 陈唐山; pinyin: Chén Tángshān; Wade–Giles: Chén Táng-shān), born September 16, 1935, in Tainan County (now part of Tainan City), Taiwan, is a Taiwanese politician, former Secretary-General of the Office of the President of the Republic of China (Taiwan) under ex-President Chen Shui-bian. He was also previously Foreign Minister of the ROC from 2004 to 2006 (the first Democratic Progressive Party member to occupy the position). He had worked for the Federal government of the United States.[citation needed]
Chen became part of the Taiwan independence movement when he was studying in the United States. In 1970, he organized the World United Formosans for Independence. After the establishment of the World Federation of Taiwanese Associations (世界臺灣同鄉會聯合會), Chen Tang-shan became its president from 1979 to 1984.
Because of his political views, during this time Chen was put on a Kuomintang black list, and was unable to return to Taiwan. He was allowed to return in 1987. In 1992, two years after his return, Chen joined the Democratic Progressive Party and was elected a member of the Legislative Yuan. In December 1993, He was nominated the candidate of Tainan County Magistrate by the DPP and was elected. He was reelected again in 1997 with 66% of the vote.
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Najib Razak
Dato' Sri Haji Mohammad Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak (born 23 July 1953) is a Malaysian politician who has been the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia since 2009. He previously held the post of Deputy Prime Minister from 7 January 2004 until he succeeded Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as Prime Minister on 3 April 2009. Najib is President of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). He is the son of Malaysia's second prime minister, Tun Abdul Razak and the nephew of Malaysia's third prime minister, Tun Hussein Onn. Najib is also the Minister of Finance.
Najib succeeded Abdullah at a time after his ruling coalition, the Barisan Nasional, lost its long held two-thirds majority in parliament to the opposition led by former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in the 2008 parliamentary election. Since then Najib has tried to build a moderate image for himself and the UMNO through the 1Malaysia campaign.
Born 23 July 1953, in Kuala Lipis, Pahang, Najib is the eldest of Prime Minister Abdul Razak's six sons, and the nephew of Hussein Onn, Malaysia’s third Prime Minister. His younger brother, Dato' Seri Mohd Nazir Abdul Razak, runs the country's second-largest lender, Bumiputra-Commerce Holdings Bhd. Najib is also one of the Four Noblemen of the Pahang Darul Makmur (Royal Court) by virtue of his inherited title as the Orang Kaya Indera Shahbandar. He received his primary and secondary education at St. John's Institution, Kuala Lumpur. He later attended Malvern College in Worcestershire, England, and subsequently went to the University of Nottingham, where he received a bachelor's degree in industrial economics in 1974. Najib Razak returned to Malaysia in 1974 and entered the business world, serving briefly in Bank Negara (Central Bank) and later with Petronas (Malaysia's national oil company) as a public affairs manager.
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Najib Tun Razak
Dato' Sri Haji Mohammad Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak (born 23 July 1953) is a Malaysian politician who has been the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia since 2009. He previously held the post of Deputy Prime Minister from 7 January 2004 until he succeeded Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as Prime Minister on 3 April 2009. Najib is President of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). He is the son of Malaysia's second prime minister, Tun Abdul Razak and the nephew of Malaysia's third prime minister, Tun Hussein Onn. Najib is also the Minister of Finance.
Najib succeeded Abdullah at a time after his ruling coalition, the Barisan Nasional, lost its long held two-thirds majority in parliament to the opposition led by former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in the 2008 parliamentary election. Since then Najib has tried to build a moderate image for himself and the UMNO through the 1Malaysia campaign.
Born 23 July 1953, in Kuala Lipis, Pahang, Najib is the eldest of Prime Minister Abdul Razak's six sons, and the nephew of Hussein Onn, Malaysia’s third Prime Minister. His younger brother, Dato' Seri Mohd Nazir Abdul Razak, runs the country's second-largest lender, Bumiputra-Commerce Holdings Bhd. Najib is also one of the Four Noblemen of the Pahang Darul Makmur (Royal Court) by virtue of his inherited title as the Orang Kaya Indera Shahbandar. He received his primary and secondary education at St. John's Institution, Kuala Lumpur. He later attended Malvern College in Worcestershire, England, and subsequently went to the University of Nottingham, where he received a bachelor's degree in industrial economics in 1974. Najib Razak returned to Malaysia in 1974 and entered the business world, serving briefly in Bank Negara (Central Bank) and later with Petronas (Malaysia's national oil company) as a public affairs manager.
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Ng Eng Hen
Dr Ng Eng Hen (simplified Chinese: 黄永宏; traditional Chinese: 黃永宏; pinyin: Huáng Yǒnghóng) (born 10 December 1958) is a politician from Singapore. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he is currently the country's Minister for Defence. He also serves as the Leader of the House in Singapore's Parliament. He previously served as the Minister for Manpower from 2004 to 2008, and Minister for Education from 2008 to 2011. He has been a Member of Parliament (MP) representing the Bishan-Toa Payoh Group Representation Constituency since 2001.
Ng was a Consultant Surgeon at the Singapore General Hospital from 1992 to 1997, and maintained a private practice in Mount Elizabeth Hospital as a surgical oncologist from 1997 to 2001.
In 2001, Ng was elected a Member of Parliament for the Bishan-Toa Payoh Group Representation Constituency. In 2002, he was made a Minister of State at the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Manpower.
In August 2004, Ng became the Minister for Manpower and Second Minister for Education. In 2005, his Second Minister's portfolio was switched from Education to Defence.
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Nguyen Tan Dung
Nguyễn Tấn Dũng (born 17 November 1949) is the Prime Minister of Vietnam. He was confirmed by the National Assembly on 27 June 2006, having been nominated by his predecessor, Phan Van Khai, who retired from office. Since a party congress in January 2011, Dung has been ranked third in the hierarchy of the Communist Party of Vietnam, after State President Truong Tan Sang and Defense Minister Phung Quang Thanh.
Dung was born in Ca Mau Province in southern Vietnam. On his 12th birthday, the young Dung is said to have voluntarily joined the Vietcong, doing first-aid, and communication tasks; he also worked as a nurse, and a physician. Dung was four times wounded in the Vietnam War, and was later ranked as a level 2/4 wounded veteran. As a Senior Lieutenant he was Chief Political Commissar of Infantry Battalion 207; as a Captain, he was Political Chief of Infantry Regiment 152, defending the southwestern border; and as Major, he was Head of the Personnel Board of Kien Giang Province's Military Command.
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Ollanta Humala
Ollanta Moisés Humala Tasso (Spanish pronunciation: [oˈʎanta mojˈses uˈmala ˈtaso]) (born June 27, 1962) is a Peruvian politician and the President of Peru. Humala, who previously served as an army officer, lost the presidential election in 2006 but won the 2011 presidential election in a run-off vote. He was elected as President of Peru in the second round, defeating Keiko Fujimori.
The son of Isaac Humala, a labour lawyer, Humala entered the Peruvian Army in 1982. In the military he achieved the rank of Lieutenant Colonel; in 1992 he fought in the internal conflict against the Shining Path and three years later he participated in the Cenepa War against Ecuador. In October 2000, Humala led an unsuccessful military revolt by 39 soldiers in the southern city of Tacna against President Alberto Fujimori; he was pardoned by the Peruvian Congress after the downfall of the Fujimori regime.
In 2005 he founded the Peruvian Nationalist Party and registered to run in the 2006 presidential election. The nomination was made under the Union for Peru ticket as the Nationalist party did not achieve its electoral inscription on time. He passed the first round of the elections, held on April 9, 2006, with 30.62% of the valid votes. A runoff was held on June 4 between Humala and Alan García of the Peruvian Aprista Party. Humala lost this round with 47.47% of the valid votes versus 52.62% for García. After his defeat, Humala remained as an important figure within Peruvian politics.
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Ong Teng Cheong
Ong Teng Cheong (Chinese: 王鼎昌; pinyin: Wáng Dǐngchāng; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Ông Tíng-chhiong; 22 January 1936 - 8 February 2002) was the first directly elected President of the Republic of Singapore. He was the nation's fifth President, and served a six-year term from 1 September 1993 to 31 August 1999.
Born in 1936, Ong was the second of five children from a middle class Chinese Singaporean family. His English-educated father felt that the Chinese language was important if one wants to be successful in business at that time, and he sent all his children to Chinese medium schools. Ong graduated with distinctions from The Chinese High School (now Hwa Chong Institution) in 1955. Having received a Chinese-language education, he saw little opportunity for advancing his studies in the University of Malaya, as English was the university's language medium.
In 1956, with the help of his father's friends, Ong ventured abroad. Those years were to shape both his beliefs and passions. Ong studied architecture at the University of Adelaide in Australia along with his childhood sweetheart and future wife, Ling Siew May. Both Ong and Ling met each other during a Christmas party while they were still studying in secondary school. After graduation, Ong worked as an architect in Adelaide and married Ling in 1963. Ong and his wife occasionally recite Chinese poetry and verses which they learnt during their younger days.
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Peter O'Neill
Peter Charles Paire O'Neill, CMG (born 13 February 1965) is the current Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, although this office is disputed. He is the leader of the People's National Congress and represents the constituency of Ialibu-Pangia. Former Prime Minister Michael Somare disputes O'Neill's office; he and his supporters say Somare is the current Prime Minister.
O'Neill's father, Brian O'Neill, was an Australian-born magistrate of partial Irish descent. His mother, Awambo Yari, a Papua New Guinean, came from the Southern Highlands. His father moved to Papua New Guinea in 1949 as an Australian government field officer, known in Tok Pisin as a kiap, later serving as a magistrate in Goroka until his death in 1982.
O'Neill was educated at the Pangia Primary School, Ialibu High School and Goroka High School. After leaving school he was educated at the University of Papua New Guinea, graduating with a Bachelor of Accountancy and Commerce in 1986.
O'Neill was a businessman before entering politics. As of 2011[update] he lives in Port Moresby with his partner and has five children; two daughters (Loris and Joanne O'Neill) and three sons (Travis, Brian and Patrick O'Neill), all of whom are currently attending boarding school in Australia (except his eldest and youngest sons).
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Raymond Lim
Raymond Lim Siang Keat (simplified Chinese: 林双吉; traditional Chinese: 林雙吉; pinyin: Lín Shuāngjí; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Lîm Siang-kit, born 1959) is a politician from Singapore. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), has been a Member of Parliament (MP) representing the East Coast Group Representation Constituency (Fengshan Division) since 2001. He served as the Minister for Transport from 2006 to 2011, and as a Minister in the Prime Minister's Office from 2005 to 2006.
Lim was a Rhodes Scholar and Colombo Plan scholar and holds degree from the University of Adelaide in Australia, and the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. Prior to his university education, he was a student and athlete at Raffles Institution.
Lim's brother, Benny Lim Siang Hoe, was with the Internal Security Department, and is now a Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Home Affairs.
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Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG (born 11 March 1931) is an Australian American media mogul. Murdoch became managing director of Australia's News Limited, inherited from his father, in 1952. He is the founder, Chairman and CEO of global media holding company the News Corporation, the world's second-largest media conglomerate.
In the 1950s and '60s, he acquired various newspapers in Australia and New Zealand, before expanding into the United Kingdom in 1969, taking over the News of the World followed closely by The Sun. He moved to New York in 1974 to expand into the US market and became a naturalised US citizen in 1985. In 1981, he bought The Times, his first British broadsheet.
In 1986, keen to adopt newer electronic publishing technologies, he consolidated his UK printing operations in Wapping, causing bitter industrial disputes. His News Corporation acquired Twentieth Century Fox (1985), HarperCollins (1989) and The Wall Street Journal (2007). He formed BSkyB in 1990 and during the 1990s expanded into Asian networks and South American television. By 2000 Murdoch's News Corporation owned over 800 companies in more than 50 countries with a net worth of over $5 billion.
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S. Iswaran
S. Iswaran is a politician from Singapore. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he currently serves in the Cabinet as a Minister in the Prime Minister's Office. He is also the Second Minister for Home Affairs and Second Minister for Trade and Industry. He has been a Member of Parliament (MP) since 1997.
Iswaran has worked in both the public and private sectors. He has served as Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Temasek Holdings, Director for International Trade at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, and Chief Executive Officer of the Singapore Indian Development Association (SINDA).
Iswaran was first elected to Parliament in January 1997. From September 2004 to June 2006, he served as a Deputy Speaker of Parliament.
On 1 July 2006, Iswaran was appointed a Minister of State at the Ministry of Trade and Industry. On 1 April 2008, he was promoted to Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry. On 1 April 2009, he was appointed Senior Minister of State at the Ministry of Education in addition to being Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry.
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S. Jayakumar
Shunmugam Jayakumar (often known as "S. Jayakumar") (born 12 August 1939) is a Tamil Indian politician from Singapore. A former member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he previously served as Singapore's Senior Minister in the Cabinet and the Co-ordinating Minister for National Security from 2009 to 2011, Deputy Prime Minister from 2004 to 2009, Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1994 to 2004, Minister for Home Affairs from 1988 to 1994, Minister for Law from 1988 to 2008, and Minister for Labour from 1984 to 1985. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Bedok within the East Coast Group Representation Constituency. As of May 2011, he has retired from politics.
Jayakumar received his secondary education at Raffles Institution, before going on to the University of Singapore where he graduated with a Bachelor of Law (Honours) degree. He was admitted to the Bar in 1964, and then furthered his education at Yale Law School where he received a Master of Law degree in 1966. Upon his return to Singapore, Jayakumar took on a lecturing position in the Faculty of Law at the National University of Singapore from 1964 to 1981, assuming the position of Dean of the Faculty in 1974.
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S.R. Nathan
Sellapan Ramanathan (Tamil: செல்லப்பன் ராமநாதன், Cellappaṉ Rāmanātaṉ ?; born 3 July 1924) is a Singaporean politician who was the sixth President of the Republic of Singapore. Usually referred to as S. R. Nathan, he was first sworn in on 1 September 1999. In 1999 and 2005, he was elected President in uncontested elections. In 2009, he surpassed Benjamin Sheares to become Singapore's longest-serving President. His term ended on 31 August 2011.
Nathan is a Singaporean of Tamil descent; his childhood was spent with his two older brothers and grandparents, V. Sellapan and Apiram, in Muar, Johor, in a house overlooking the sea. His father had been posted to the Malayan town as a lawyer's clerk for a firm that serviced rubber plantations, but the Great Depression and rubber slump of the 1930s sent the family's fortunes crashing. Nathan's father accrued debts, and eventually killed himself when Nathan was eight.
The young Nathan returned to his birthplace, Singapore, to live. He received his primary education in Anglo-Chinese Primary School and Rangoon Road Afternoon School, and his secondary education at Victoria School. He started working before completing his studies. During the Japanese Occupation of Singapore, Nathan worked for the Japanese Kempeitai as a translator. After the war, whilst working, he completed his secondary education through self-study, and entered the University of Malaya (then in Singapore) where he graduated in 1954 with a Diploma in Social Studies (Distinction).[citation needed]
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Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper, PC MP (born April 30, 1959) is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election. He is the first prime minister from the newly reconstituted Conservative Party, following a merger of the Progressive Conservative and Canadian Alliance parties.
Harper has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for the riding of Calgary Southwest in Alberta since 2002. Earlier, from 1993 to 1997, he was the MP for Calgary West. He was one of the founding members of the Reform Party, but did not seek re-election, and instead joined, and shortly thereafter led, the National Citizens Coalition. In 2002, he succeeded Stockwell Day as leader of the Canadian Alliance (the successor to the Reform Party) and returned to parliament as Leader of the Opposition. In 2003, he reached an agreement with Progressive Conservative leader Peter MacKay for the merger of their two parties to form the Conservative Party of Canada. He was elected as the party's first non-interim leader in March 2004.
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Taiwan
Taiwan (i/ˌtaɪˈwɑːn/ TY-WAHN; Chinese: 臺灣 or 台灣; pinyin: Táiwān; see below), officially the Republic of China (ROC; Chinese: 中華民國; pinyin: Zhōnghuá Mínguó), is a state in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China now governs the island of Taiwan (formerly known as Formosa), which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu, and other minor islands. Neighboring states include the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east and northeast, and the Philippines to the south. Taipei is the capital city and economic and cultural centre of the country, and New Taipei is the most populous city.
The earliest evidence of inhabitation of Taiwan dates back to the late Paleolithic era. The island of Taiwan was mainly inhabited by Taiwanese aborigines before being colonized in the 17th century by the Dutch and the Spanish Empire. The first Han Chinese polity on Taiwan began when Koxinga's troops defeated Dutch forces and established the Kingdom of Tungning. The island was subsequently ruled by the Qing Dynasty after the kingdom's defeat in the Battle of Penghu in 1683, a period that lasted for over 200 years. Following Japan's victory over the Qing Dynasty in the first Sino-Japanese war, Taiwan was ceded to Japan under the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895.
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Teo Chee Hean
Teo Chee Hean (simplified Chinese: 张志贤; traditional Chinese: 張志賢; pinyin: Zhāng Zhìxián; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tiuⁿ Chì-hiân; born 27 December 1954) is a politician from Singapore. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he is currently the country's Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Home Affairs, Co-ordinating Minister for National Security and Minister-in-charge of the Civil Service. He has previously served as the Minister for Defence (2003–11), Minister for Education (1997–2003) and Minister for the Environment (1996–97). He has been a Member of Parliament (MP) since 1992.
Prior to entering politics, Teo was a Rear Admiral in the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN), and served as Singapore's Chief of Navy from 1991-92.
Teo enlisted in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) in 1972 and received his commission as a naval officer at the Singapore Armed Forces Training Institute in 1973. He went on to hold various command and staff appointments in the RSN and the Joint Staff.
Teo assumed command of the Republic of Singapore Navy as Chief of Navy in 1991 and was promoted to the rank of Commodore (later re-designated as Rear Admiral) in July 1991.
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Thein Sein
Thein Sein (Burmese: သိန်းစိန် [θéɪɴ zèɪɴ]; born 20 April 1945) is a Burmese politician and former military figure who has been president of Burma (Myanmar) since March 2011. Previously, he was Prime Minister from 2007 until 2011. He is generally considered to be a moderate and reformist in the new government.
Thein Sein was born in Kyonku, British Burma (now Myanmar), a small village in what is now Ngapudaw Township in the Irrawaddy delta to parents Maung Phyo (father) and Khin Nyunt (mother). He was the youngest of three children. His parents were landless, and his father made a living carrying cargo at the river jetty and weaving bamboo mats.
Thein Sein graduated from the 9th intake of the Defense Services Academy in 1968.
Throughout Thein Sein's four-decade-long military career, he was considered a bureaucrat, not a combat soldier. In 1988, he served as a major for Sagaing Division's 55th Light Infantry Division and later served as a commander for Sagaing Division's 89th Infantry Battalion in Kalay Township. The following year, he studied at the Command and General Staff College in Kalaw, Shan State.
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Truong Tan Sang
Trương Tấn Sang ([tʂɨəŋ tə̌n ʂaːŋ]; born on 21 January 1949) is the president of Vietnam and the senior member of the Politburo, the executive committee of the ruling Communist Party. He was ranked as the party's number one leader following the 11th National Congress held in Hanoi in January 2011. He became state president following a vote of the National Assembly in July. Sang has been a member of the Politburo since 1996. He was party secretary for Ho Chi Minh City from 1996 to 2000. He was promoted to the national party’s number two slot, just behind the party general secretary, in October 2009. To attain the top slot, he had to outmaneuver Prime Minister Nguyễn Tấn Dũng.
Sang was born on January 21, 1949, in Mỹ Hạnh, Đức Hòa, Long An. His nickname is “Tư Sang”. He joined the Communist Party on December 20, 1969. He was jailed by the South Vietnamese government in 1971 and held in Phú Quốc Prison. He was released under the Paris Peace Treaty in 1973. He holds a bachelor of law degree.
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Vivian Balakrishnan
Vivian Balakrishnan FRCS (born 25 January 1961) is the Singapore Minister for Environment and Water Resources and a member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP). He has previously held appointments in the Cabinet as the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports, and as the Second Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, and Trade and Industry. He is a Member of Parliament (MP) representing the Holland-Bukit Timah Group Representation Constituency.
Balakrishnan studied medicine at the National University of Singapore as a President's Scholar. He later pursued postgraduate education in ophthalmology and was admitted as a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He was appointed as an associate professor at the National University of Singapore and became the medical director of Singapore National Eye Centre. He was also the chief executive of Singapore General Hospital. Prior to the commencement of his political career, he served as the commanding officer of second Combat Support Hospital of the Singapore Armed Forces.
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Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (Russian: Влади́мир Влади́мирович Пу́тин; IPA: [vɫɐˈdʲimʲɪr vɫɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪtɕ ˈputʲɪn] ( listen); born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician who has been the President of Russia since 7 May 2012. Putin previously served as President from 2000 to 2008 and as Prime Minister of Russia from 1999 to 2000, and again from 2008 to 2012. Putin also serves as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when president Boris Yeltsin resigned in a surprising move. Putin won the 2000 presidential election; in 2004 he was re-elected for a second term lasting until 7 May 2008.
Because of constitutionally mandated term limits, Putin was ineligible to run for a third consecutive presidential term. After his successor Dmitry Medvedev won the 2008 presidential election, Putin was nominated by Medvedev to be Russia's Prime Minister; Putin took office on 8 May 2008 and a period of so-called "tandemocracy" followed. In September 2011, Putin and Medvedev agreed he should seek a third, non-consecutive term in the 2012 presidential election, which he won in the first round on 4 March 2012.
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Wen Jiabao
Wen Jiabao (born 19 September 1942) is the sixth and current Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, serving as China's head of government and leading its cabinet. In his capacity as Premier, Wen is regarded as the leading figure behind China's economic policy. He also holds membership in the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China, the country's de facto top power organ, where he is ranked third out of nine members.
Wen has a professional background in geology and engineering. He holds a postgraduate degree from the Beijing Institute of Geology, where he graduated in 1968. He was subsequently sent to Gansu province for geological work, and remained in China's hinterland regions during his climb up the bureaucratic ladder. He was transferred to Beijing to work as the Chief of the Party General Office between 1986 and 1993, and accompanied General Secretary Zhao Ziyang to Tiananmen Square during the 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests. In 1998, he was promoted to the post of Vice Premier under Zhu Rongji, his mentor, and oversaw the broad portfolios of agriculture and finance.
wn.com/Wen_Jiabao -
Wong Kan Seng
Wong Kan Seng (Chinese: 黄根成; pinyin: Huáng Gēnchéng; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Ng Kun-siaⁿ; born 1946) is a politician from Singapore. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he served as the country's Deputy Prime Minister from 2005 to 2011. He also held the Cabinet portfolios of Minister for Community Development (1987–91), Minister for Foreign Affairs (1988–94), Minister for Home Affairs (1994–2010) and Co-ordinating Minister for National Security (2010–11). He is a Member of Parliament (MP) representing the Bishan-Toa Payoh Group Representation Constituency.
Wong entered politics in 1984 after working in the civil service and the private sector.
Wong was elected a Member of Parliament representing the Kuo Chuan constituency in Toa Payoh at the 1984 general election. He has since been re-elected as an MP repesenting the Group Representation Constituencies of Toa Payoh (1988), Thomson (1991) and Bishan-Toa Payoh (1997, 2001, 2006 and 2011).
Wong was appointed the Acting Minister for Community Development in 1986. He was made a full member of the Cabinet as Minister for Community Development by Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew in 1987. He was concurrently appointed the Minister for Foreign Affairs in 1988. In 1994, he became the Minister for Home Affairs. Wong also served as the Leader of the House in Singapore's Parliament from 1991-2007.
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Woo Bih Li
Justice Woo Bih Li (simplified Chinese: 吴必理; traditional Chinese: 吳必理; pinyin: Wú Bìlǐ) is a judge of the Supreme Court of Singapore.
Woo received his LL.B. from the University of Singapore in 1977, and was admitted as an advocate and solicitor of the Supreme Court the following year. He joined the local law firm Allen & Gledhill in 1970 and in 1992, he established Bih Li & Lee in 1992, becoming its Managing Partner. Having been appointed Senior Counsel in 1997, he was appointed Judicial Commissioner in May 2000, and Judge in January 2003.
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Xiamen
Xiamen (Mandarin pronunciation: [ɕjâmə̌n]), also known as Amoy /əˈmɔɪ/, is a major city on the southeast (Taiwan Strait) coast of the People's Republic of China. It is administered as a sub-provincial city of Fujian province with an area of 1575.16 km2 and population of 3.61 million. Its built up area is now bigger than the old urban island area and covers now all 6 districts of Xiamen (Huli, Siming, Jimei, Tong'an, Haicang and recently Xiang'an), for a total of 3,531,147 inhabitants. It borders Quanzhou to the north and Zhangzhou making with this city a unique built up area of more than 5 million people. The Jinmen (Kinmen) Islands administered by the Republic of China (Taiwan) are less than 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) away.
Xiamen and the surrounding southern Fujian countryside are the ancestral home to large communities of overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia and Taiwan. The city was a treaty port in the 19th century and one of the four original Special Economic Zones opened to foreign investment and trade when China began economic reforms in the early 1980s. It is endowed with educational and cultural institutions supported by the overseas Chinese diaspora. In 2006, Xiamen was ranked as China's second 'most suitable city for living'.
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Yaacob Ibrahim
Yaacob bin Ibrahim (born 3 October 1955) is a politician from Singapore. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he is currently the country's Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, and Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs. A Member of Parliament (MP) since 1997, he was the Minister for Community Development and Sports from 2003 to 2004, and as the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources from 2004 to 2011.
Yaacob was a youth member of Muslim Missionary Society of Singapore (Jamiyah). Initially a volunteer tutor, became the Chairman of the Council for the Development of Singapore Muslim Community (Yayasan Mendaki) in March 2002. He was a member of the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS) from 1992 to 1996, and is on the Association of Muslim Professionals (AMP).
Yaacob graduated from the University of Singapore with an honours degree in civil engineering in 1980 and in 1989 obtained a PhD from Stanford University. He was a postdoc at Cornell University. He returned to Singapore in 1990 and joined the National University of Singapore faculty in 1991. He received his department's teaching excellence award in 1994.
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Yingluck Shinawatra
Yingluck Shinawatra (Thai: ยิ่งลักษณ์ ชินวัตร, RTGS: Yinglak Chinnawat, Thai pronunciation: [jîŋ.lák tɕʰīn.nā.wát]; born 21 June 1967), or nickname Pu (Thai: ปู; Thai pronunciation: [pūː ]; "crab"), is a Thai businesswoman and politician, member of the Pheu Thai Party, who became the 28th and current Prime Minister of Thailand following the 2011 general election. Yingluck is Thailand's first female Prime Minister and at 44 is the youngest Prime Minister of Thailand in over 60 years.
Born in Chiang Mai province, Yingluck Shinawatra earned bachelor's degree from Chiang Mai University and master's degree from Kentucky State University, both in public administration. She became an executive in the businesses founded by her elder brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, and later became the president of property developer SC Asset and managing director of Advanced Info Service. Meanwhile, her brother Thaksin became Prime Minister, was overthrown in a military coup, and went into self-imposed exile after a tribunal convicted him of abuse of power.
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Yong Pung How
Yong Pung How, DUT(First Class) (simplified Chinese: 杨邦孝; traditional Chinese: 楊邦孝; pinyin: Yáng Bāngxiào; born in 1926, Kuala Lumpur, Malaya). He was the former Chief Justice of Singapore, serving from 1990 to 2006. Prior to his judicial career, he was a lawyer, banker and senior government official. Since 2010, he has been Chancellor of the Singapore Management University.
A Hakka, Yong received early education at the Victoria Institution in Kuala Lumpur, and at the Downing College, Cambridge, where he developed close friendships with two of his Singaporean schoolmates, Mr Lee Kuan Yew and his wife, Kwa Geok Choo. He was made an Exhibitioner, and an Associate Fellow in his college years. Yong did exceptionally well, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (Law Qualifying I: Class 1; Law Tripos I: Class 2, Division 2; Law Tripos II: Class 2, Division 1) in 1949, and with a Bachelor of Law (Class 2, Division 1) in 1950. In 1970 he furthered his education with the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business School.
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Yoshihiko Noda
Yoshihiko Noda (野田 佳彦, Noda Yoshihiko?, born 20 May 1957) is the current Prime Minister of Japan, a member of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), and a member of the House of Representatives (lower house) in the Diet (national legislature). He was named to succeed outgoing Prime Minister Naoto Kan as a result of a runoff vote against Banri Kaieda in his party, and was formally appointed by the Emperor on 2 September 2011.
Noda was born in Funabashi, Chiba, as a son of a member of the Japan Self-Defense Forces. Unlike many prominent Japanese politicians, Noda has no family connections to Nagatachō. His parents were too poor to pay for a wedding reception.
Noda graduated from Chiba Prefectural Funabashi Senior High School in 1975. Then, Noda graduated from Waseda University School of Political Sciences and Economics in 1980 and was later accepted into the prestigious Matsushita Institute, an institution founded by Panasonic founder Konosuke Matsushita that grooms future civic leaders of Japan. While attending the Matsushita Institute, Noda read household gas meters as a part-time job in his native Chiba Prefecture, partially in order to get to know his future constituents better in preparation for a run for office. He was elected to the assembly of Chiba Prefecture for the first time in 1987 at the age of 29.
wn.com/Yoshihiko_Noda
Famous quotes by Lee Hsien Loong:
"In today's world, a national broadband network is basic infrastructure and a source of competitive advantage."
"Our combined efforts to deal with the water challenge have turned our vulnerability into a strength,"
"We have to remake Singapore. Our economy, our education, our mind-set, our city. It must be a totally different Singapore. Because if its the same Singapore today, we're dead,"
"to see what we can do to keep the numbers down permanently in Singapore."
"I hope to bring all Singaporeans together, so that even though we may not all agree on this issue, we understand and respect each other's reasons and concerns, and can close ranks and move ahead."
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TV Forum: Conversation with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong - 14Sep2012 [HD]
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 47:10
- Updated: 26 Nov 2012
Fast forward to 07:12 to hear PM Lee said KPKB~! Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong: A conversation with PM Lee, on education, pre-schoolers, technology and Singapore of the future What would encourage Singaporeans to have children? The conversation with PM Lee on parenthood A conversation with PM Lee on ugly Singaporeans, values and accepting immigrants Home, Heart and Hope. Will future Singaporeans have a better life? SINGAPORE: Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is holding a TV forum called "A Conversation With PM Lee" on Friday to meet people from all walks of life to discuss the next chapter of the Singapore Story. Education Minister Heng Swee Keat and Members of Parliament Indranee Rajah and Dr Intan Azura Mokhtar are the other panellists at the forum hosted by Channel NewsAsia. At the recent National Day Rally, Mr Lee had said that the government aims to engage as many Singaporeans as possible to discuss the nation's future. Some 50 studio guests from various quarters of society, including business leaders, professionals, tertiary students, unionists, non-governmental organisations, social entrepreneurs, new citizens and others will be interacting with the forum panellists and polling on issues during the programme. The forum is moderated by Channel NewsAsia presenter Sharon Tong and will be recorded at Caldecott Broadcast Centre on Friday. "We have assembled an audience that is a snapshot of the mix in society, and this programme is set up to be interactive and open to ...
http://wn.com/TV_Forum_Conversation_with_Prime_Minister_Lee_Hsien_Loong_14Sep2012_HD_
Fast forward to 07:12 to hear PM Lee said KPKB~! Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong: A conversation with PM Lee, on education, pre-schoolers, technology and Singapore of the future What would encourage Singaporeans to have children? The conversation with PM Lee on parenthood A conversation with PM Lee on ugly Singaporeans, values and accepting immigrants Home, Heart and Hope. Will future Singaporeans have a better life? SINGAPORE: Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is holding a TV forum called "A Conversation With PM Lee" on Friday to meet people from all walks of life to discuss the next chapter of the Singapore Story. Education Minister Heng Swee Keat and Members of Parliament Indranee Rajah and Dr Intan Azura Mokhtar are the other panellists at the forum hosted by Channel NewsAsia. At the recent National Day Rally, Mr Lee had said that the government aims to engage as many Singaporeans as possible to discuss the nation's future. Some 50 studio guests from various quarters of society, including business leaders, professionals, tertiary students, unionists, non-governmental organisations, social entrepreneurs, new citizens and others will be interacting with the forum panellists and polling on issues during the programme. The forum is moderated by Channel NewsAsia presenter Sharon Tong and will be recorded at Caldecott Broadcast Centre on Friday. "We have assembled an audience that is a snapshot of the mix in society, and this programme is set up to be interactive and open to ...
Singapore Symposium : A Dialogue with Mr Lee Hsien Loong (12 July 2012)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 71:45
- Updated: 02 Dec 2012
http://wn.com/Singapore_Symposium_A_Dialogue_with_Mr_Lee_Hsien_Loong_12_July_2012
- published: 31 Jul 2012
- views: 1342
- author: isasnus2
PM Lee Hsien Loong's National Day Message 2012
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:32
- Updated: 18 Nov 2012
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's National Day Message in English on 8 August 2012. The message was filmed at Bishan-Ang Mo Kio park.
http://wn.com/PM_Lee_Hsien_Loong's_National_Day_Message_2012
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's National Day Message in English on 8 August 2012. The message was filmed at Bishan-Ang Mo Kio park.
- published: 08 Aug 2012
- views: 52840
- author: pmosingapore
Davos 2012 - Lee Hsien-Loong - The Outlook for East Asia
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 27:51
- Updated: 29 Nov 2012
www.weforum.org 26.01.2012 The Outlook for East Asia • Lee Hsien-Loong, Prime Minister of Singapore Moderated by • Fareed Zakaria, Anchor, Fareed Zakaria - GPS, CNN, USA
http://wn.com/Davos_2012_Lee_Hsien-Loong_The_Outlook_for_East_Asia
www.weforum.org 26.01.2012 The Outlook for East Asia • Lee Hsien-Loong, Prime Minister of Singapore Moderated by • Fareed Zakaria, Anchor, Fareed Zakaria - GPS, CNN, USA
- published: 26 Jan 2012
- views: 15887
- author: WorldEconomicForum
CNN interview with Singapore PM Lee hsien loong-P1
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:26
- Updated: 27 Oct 2012
Video this news in my hotel room TV, interesting answer by PM Lee when he talks about his pay cut. Continue to watch on part 2
http://wn.com/CNN_interview_with_Singapore_PM_Lee_hsien_loong-P1
Video this news in my hotel room TV, interesting answer by PM Lee when he talks about his pay cut. Continue to watch on part 2
- published: 06 Feb 2012
- views: 6073
- author: hanyew
DIALOGUE WITH PRIME MINISTER LEE HSIEN LOONG
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 72:43
- Updated: 13 Aug 2012
SINGAPORE SYMPOSIUM Thursday, 12 July 2012 Shah Jehan Hall, Taj Palace Hotel, Sardar Patel Marg, New Delhi-110021
http://wn.com/DIALOGUE_WITH_PRIME_MINISTER_LEE_HSIEN_LOONG
SINGAPORE SYMPOSIUM Thursday, 12 July 2012 Shah Jehan Hall, Taj Palace Hotel, Sardar Patel Marg, New Delhi-110021
- published: 13 Aug 2012
- views: 311
- author: aspeninstituteindia
Economic Society of Singapore Annual Dinner 2012
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 39:45
- Updated: 29 Oct 2012
Speech by PM Lee Hsien Loong
http://wn.com/Economic_Society_of_Singapore_Annual_Dinner_2012
Speech by PM Lee Hsien Loong
- published: 08 Jun 2012
- views: 4654
- author: pmosingapore
Lee Hsien Loong Sings What Makes You Beautiful
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:30
- Updated: 06 Dec 2012
Follow us on Twitter at @fsuperhero twitter.com Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com Check out our dance mix of an NDP song here: youtu.be This video is made purely for fun, and is in no way intended to defame or insult any parties involved. Inspired by the Obama dubs that went viral, we decided to try our own local brand of mix. This video took A LOT of time, which explains why we went missing for over 2 months. It also explains why we stopped after the first chorus. :P Nonetheless, hope you enjoy the video!
http://wn.com/Lee_Hsien_Loong_Sings_What_Makes_You_Beautiful
Follow us on Twitter at @fsuperhero twitter.com Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com Check out our dance mix of an NDP song here: youtu.be This video is made purely for fun, and is in no way intended to defame or insult any parties involved. Inspired by the Obama dubs that went viral, we decided to try our own local brand of mix. This video took A LOT of time, which explains why we went missing for over 2 months. It also explains why we stopped after the first chorus. :P Nonetheless, hope you enjoy the video!
- published: 18 Aug 2012
- views: 72154
- author: FallenSuperheroSG
Bilateral Meeting with HE Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of Singapore 9/8/12
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:17
- Updated: 26 Nov 2012
Conference Center, Far Eastern Federal University Russky Island 08 September 2012 President Benigno S. Aquino III met with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore before the APEC leaders' official activities formally commence in the afternoon. Prime Minister Loong was accompanied by his Press Secretary Chen Huai Liang, Ministry of Trade and Industry Permanent Secretary Ow Foong Pheng, Singapore Ambassador to the Philippines Lim Kheng Hua, Foreign Affairs Director on Energy Wong Chow Ming, Trade and Industry Director Rossman Ithnain and Principal Private Secretary Gabriel Lim. On the Philippine side, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan, Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras, Presidential Protocol Chief Ambassador Miguel Perez-Rubio and Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda joined the President during the meeting. *** Connect with RTVM Website: rtvm.gov.ph Facebook www.facebook.com Twitter: @RTVMalacanang LinkedIn: Radio Television Malacanang
http://wn.com/Bilateral_Meeting_with_HE_Lee_Hsien_Loong,_Prime_Minister_of_Singapore_9_8_12
Conference Center, Far Eastern Federal University Russky Island 08 September 2012 President Benigno S. Aquino III met with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore before the APEC leaders' official activities formally commence in the afternoon. Prime Minister Loong was accompanied by his Press Secretary Chen Huai Liang, Ministry of Trade and Industry Permanent Secretary Ow Foong Pheng, Singapore Ambassador to the Philippines Lim Kheng Hua, Foreign Affairs Director on Energy Wong Chow Ming, Trade and Industry Director Rossman Ithnain and Principal Private Secretary Gabriel Lim. On the Philippine side, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan, Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras, Presidential Protocol Chief Ambassador Miguel Perez-Rubio and Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda joined the President during the meeting. *** Connect with RTVM Website: rtvm.gov.ph Facebook www.facebook.com Twitter: @RTVMalacanang LinkedIn: Radio Television Malacanang
- published: 07 Sep 2012
- views: 1053
- author: RTVMalacanang
How S'pore churns out world's best civil servants
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:57
- Updated: 03 Dec 2012
In a free-wheeling interview with CNBC-TV 18, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong among other things, speaks how he sees India, what makes China No.1 in Asia and how Singapore manages to attract the best civil servants amid lure of the private sector.
http://wn.com/How_S'pore_churns_out_world's_best_civil_servants
In a free-wheeling interview with CNBC-TV 18, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong among other things, speaks how he sees India, what makes China No.1 in Asia and how Singapore manages to attract the best civil servants amid lure of the private sector.
- published: 15 May 2010
- views: 3356
- author: moneycontrol
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's Speech to Parliament, 20 Oct, 2011.
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 31:57
- Updated: 29 Nov 2012
An excerpt from Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's Speech to Parliament on 20 Oct, 2011.
http://wn.com/Prime_Minister_Lee_Hsien_Loong's_Speech_to_Parliament,_20_Oct,_2011
An excerpt from Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's Speech to Parliament on 20 Oct, 2011.
- published: 21 Oct 2011
- views: 4991
- author: TODAYdigital
PM Lee's English Speech at National Day Rally 2012: Hope (Part 1/3)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 44:38
- Updated: 01 Dec 2012
Part 1/3 of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's English speech on "Hope" at National Day Rally 2012
http://wn.com/PM_Lee's_English_Speech_at_National_Day_Rally_2012_Hope_Part_1_3
Part 1/3 of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's English speech on "Hope" at National Day Rally 2012
- published: 26 Aug 2012
- views: 41131
- author: pmosingapore
PM Lee's Malay Speech at National Day Rally 2012 | Rapat Hari Kebangsaan 2012
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 12:43
- Updated: 06 Dec 2012
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's Malay speech at National Day Rally 2012
http://wn.com/PM_Lee's_Malay_Speech_at_National_Day_Rally_2012_|_Rapat_Hari_Kebangsaan_2012
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's Malay speech at National Day Rally 2012
- published: 26 Aug 2012
- views: 40609
- author: pmosingapore
Lee Hsien Loong - Wiki Article
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 28:11
- Updated: 06 Nov 2012
This is a Chinese name; the family name is Lee. Lee Hsien Loong (born 10 February 1952) is the third and current Prime Minister of Singapore, and the eldest son of Singapore's first Prime Minister, ... Lee Hsien Loong - Wiki Article - wikiplays.org Original @ http All Information Derived from Wikipedia using Creative Commons License: en.wikipedia.org Author: Lee_Hsien-Loong_-_World_Economic_Forum_Annual_Meeting_2012.jpg Image URL: en.wikipedia.org ( Creative Commons ASA 3.0 ) Author: Vsion Image URL: en.wikipedia.org ( This work is in the Public Domain. )
http://wn.com/Lee_Hsien_Loong_Wiki_Article
This is a Chinese name; the family name is Lee. Lee Hsien Loong (born 10 February 1952) is the third and current Prime Minister of Singapore, and the eldest son of Singapore's first Prime Minister, ... Lee Hsien Loong - Wiki Article - wikiplays.org Original @ http All Information Derived from Wikipedia using Creative Commons License: en.wikipedia.org Author: Lee_Hsien-Loong_-_World_Economic_Forum_Annual_Meeting_2012.jpg Image URL: en.wikipedia.org ( Creative Commons ASA 3.0 ) Author: Vsion Image URL: en.wikipedia.org ( This work is in the Public Domain. )
- published: 06 Nov 2012
- views: 81
- author: WikiPlays
PM Lee's English Speech at the National Day Rally 2012
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 91:25
- Updated: 24 Nov 2012
PM Lee Hsien Loong's English speech at the National Day Rally 2012, where he spoke on the themes of "Hope, Heart and Home".
http://wn.com/PM_Lee's_English_Speech_at_the_National_Day_Rally_2012
PM Lee Hsien Loong's English speech at the National Day Rally 2012, where he spoke on the themes of "Hope, Heart and Home".
- published: 31 Aug 2012
- views: 1934
- author: pmosingapore
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in his 2012 National Day Message.
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:54
- Updated: 17 Oct 2012
Delivering the National Day Message on Wednesday, PM Lee Hsien Loong said despite a backdrop of uncertainty in Europe and US, Singapore's economy has fared quite well, growing 1.7% in the first half of 2012. It is on track for a 1.5-2.5% growth for the whole year. Mr Lee shared that Singapore must always offer hope of a better future, creating opportunities for all. As new needs have emerged over time, PM Lee said the government has enhanced the social safety nets by introducing ComCare to help the needy, Workfare for low-income workers and additional housing grants for low- and middle-income couples. The Silver Housing Bonus was also introduced to benefit Singapore's ageing population, among a slew of measures announced at this year's Budget. Full transcript here: www.channelnewsasia.com/annex/ndm2012_eng.pdf
http://wn.com/Singapore_Prime_Minister_Lee_Hsien_Loong_in_his_2012_National_Day_Message
Delivering the National Day Message on Wednesday, PM Lee Hsien Loong said despite a backdrop of uncertainty in Europe and US, Singapore's economy has fared quite well, growing 1.7% in the first half of 2012. It is on track for a 1.5-2.5% growth for the whole year. Mr Lee shared that Singapore must always offer hope of a better future, creating opportunities for all. As new needs have emerged over time, PM Lee said the government has enhanced the social safety nets by introducing ComCare to help the needy, Workfare for low-income workers and additional housing grants for low- and middle-income couples. The Silver Housing Bonus was also introduced to benefit Singapore's ageing population, among a slew of measures announced at this year's Budget. Full transcript here: www.channelnewsasia.com/annex/ndm2012_eng.pdf
- published: 09 Aug 2012
- views: 973
- author: StudyinSingapore
PM Lee's English Speech at National Day Rally 2012: Heart (Part 2/3)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 24:20
- Updated: 01 Nov 2012
Part 2/3 of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's English speech on "Heart" at National Day Rally 2012
http://wn.com/PM_Lee's_English_Speech_at_National_Day_Rally_2012_Heart_Part_2_3
Part 2/3 of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's English speech on "Heart" at National Day Rally 2012
- published: 26 Aug 2012
- views: 12532
- author: pmosingapore
3rd National Convention of Singapore Muslim Professionals - Dialogue with PM Lee Hsien Loong
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 73:18
- Updated: 26 Nov 2012
Participants of the 3rd National Convention of Singapore Muslim Professionals engaged with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to discuss issues relating to the Malay/Muslim community in Singapore. The Convention was held on Saturday 30 June 2012 at the United World College Southeast Asia (East Campus). For more details about this event, please visit: www.amp.org.sg
http://wn.com/3rd_National_Convention_of_Singapore_Muslim_Professionals_Dialogue_with_PM_Lee_Hsien_Loong
Participants of the 3rd National Convention of Singapore Muslim Professionals engaged with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to discuss issues relating to the Malay/Muslim community in Singapore. The Convention was held on Saturday 30 June 2012 at the United World College Southeast Asia (East Campus). For more details about this event, please visit: www.amp.org.sg
- published: 20 Sep 2012
- views: 180
- author: AMPSingapore
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong visits Brunei
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:14
- Updated: 31 Oct 2012
Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, during the first of his three-day visit, following an invitation from His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam. PM Lee met with His Majesty for a four-eye meeting at Istana Nurul Iman, and later in the afternoon had hi-tea with Senior Economic Officials at the Empire Hotel and Country Club. Read the full story at www.bt.com.bn
http://wn.com/Prime_Minister_Lee_Hsien_Loong_visits_Brunei
Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, during the first of his three-day visit, following an invitation from His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam. PM Lee met with His Majesty for a four-eye meeting at Istana Nurul Iman, and later in the afternoon had hi-tea with Senior Economic Officials at the Empire Hotel and Country Club. Read the full story at www.bt.com.bn
- published: 29 Oct 2012
- views: 660
- author: thebruneitimes
PM Lee in Chengdu on first leg of China visit - 02Sep2012
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:27
- Updated: 06 Sep 2012
CHENGDU, CHINA - Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is in Chengdu on the first leg of a six-day visit to China at the invitation of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. Mr Lee was met on arrival at the Chengdu Airport on Sunday by Sichuan Executive Vice-Governor Wei Hong. In the evening, PM Lee will meet and be hosted to dinner by Sichuan Provincial Party Secretary Liu Qibao. On Monday, Mr Lee will visit the Singapore-Sichuan Hi-Tech Innovation Park, which is a private sector-led project supported by the two governments. He will also visit the reconstructed Yingxiu Town, the epicentre of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. From Chengdu, PM Lee will travel to Beijing where he will meet President Hu Jintao, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress Wu Bangguo, Premier Wen Jiabao, Vice-President Xi Jinping and Vice-Premier Li Keqiang. Mr Lee will also deliver a speech at the Central Party School of the Communist Party of China. www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1223555/1/.html
http://wn.com/PM_Lee_in_Chengdu_on_first_leg_of_China_visit_02Sep2012
CHENGDU, CHINA - Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is in Chengdu on the first leg of a six-day visit to China at the invitation of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. Mr Lee was met on arrival at the Chengdu Airport on Sunday by Sichuan Executive Vice-Governor Wei Hong. In the evening, PM Lee will meet and be hosted to dinner by Sichuan Provincial Party Secretary Liu Qibao. On Monday, Mr Lee will visit the Singapore-Sichuan Hi-Tech Innovation Park, which is a private sector-led project supported by the two governments. He will also visit the reconstructed Yingxiu Town, the epicentre of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. From Chengdu, PM Lee will travel to Beijing where he will meet President Hu Jintao, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress Wu Bangguo, Premier Wen Jiabao, Vice-President Xi Jinping and Vice-Premier Li Keqiang. Mr Lee will also deliver a speech at the Central Party School of the Communist Party of China. www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1223555/1/.html
- published: 02 Sep 2012
- views: 831
- author: 154thmedia2012
PM Lee Hsien Loong on technology - NDR 2012
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:36
- Updated: 30 Aug 2012
PM Lee Hsien Loong talking about how technology will transform our lives during National Day Rally 2012
http://wn.com/PM_Lee_Hsien_Loong_on_technology_NDR_2012
PM Lee Hsien Loong talking about how technology will transform our lives during National Day Rally 2012
- published: 26 Aug 2012
- views: 459
- author: winfredkwan
Excerpts of S'pore PM Lee's interview by Charlie Rose - 14 Apr 2010
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:49
- Updated: 06 Dec 2012
Excerpts of the interview
http://wn.com/Excerpts_of_S'pore_PM_Lee's_interview_by_Charlie_Rose_14_Apr_2010
Excerpts of the interview
- published: 16 Apr 2010
- views: 13932
- author: sporenewsalternative
PM's Speech at the 3rd National Convention of Singapore Muslim Professionals
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 24:00
- Updated: 26 Nov 2012
PM Lee Hsien Loong speaking at the 3rd National Convention of Singapore Muslim Professionals on 30 June 2012
http://wn.com/PM's_Speech_at_the_3rd_National_Convention_of_Singapore_Muslim_Professionals
PM Lee Hsien Loong speaking at the 3rd National Convention of Singapore Muslim Professionals on 30 June 2012
- published: 30 Jun 2012
- views: 1041
- author: pmosingapore
photo: AP / Bullit Marquez
06 Dec 2012
NEW BATAAN, Philippines - A powerful typhoon that washed away emergency shelters, a military camp and possibly entire families in the southern Philippines has killed almost 350 people with nearly 400 missing, authorities said Thursday. More bodies were retrieved from hardest-hit Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental provinces and six others impacted by Tuesday's storm, the Office of Civil Defense reported ... "It was horrible ... --- ... Location....(size: 8.0Kb)
photo: AP / Photo
06 Dec 2012
Lionel Messi missed out on a chance to match Gerd Mueller's record of 85 goals in a calendar year as he was injured during Barcelona's draw with Benfica. Messi, who hurt his left knee in a collision with Benfica keeper Artur, was taken off 30 minutes after coming on as a second-half substitute. Benfica knew a win would see them finish second behind Barca in Group G ... FC Barcelona's official Twitter account tweeted after the Benfica game....(size: 2.5Kb)
photo: US Navy / Matthew Stroup
05 Dec 2012
ISAF today issued an operational update on combat operations in Afghanistan. It noted, among other things, that Afghan and coalition security forces conducted an operation in Watahpur district yesterday that resulted in the “death of insurgent leader Mohammad Yar Gul.” ... Mohammed Yar Gul coordinated the movement of insurgent fighters throughout Kunar province ... ....(size: 1.7Kb)
photo: AP / Karlos Manlupig
05 Dec 2012
The death toll from a powerful storm that hit the southern Philippines is continuing to rise, as rescue teams headed for affected areas. Typhoon Bopha struck Mindanao island on Tuesday, bringing rain and high winds. Tens of thousands were evacuated ahead of the storm, which is now passing over the western island of Palawan ... Water and mud rushed down mountainous slopes to engulf a school and a village hall serving as evacuation centres ... ....(size: 2.4Kb)
Business Insider
07 Dec 2012
Those accused of corruption usually face a 5-year jail term and up to S$100,000 ($80,000) fine, and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong wants to add even more penalties as a form of deterrence, according to the Associated Press. . Lee made it clear that "it's far better to suffer the embarrassment and keep the system clean for the ......(size: 8.1Kb)
noodls
04 Dec 2012
Former US National Security Advisor and President of the Scowcroft Group, General Brent Scowcroft, called on Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the Istana this morning. . During the meeting, Prime Minister Lee and General Scowcroft ......(size: 1.5Kb)
New Straits/Business Times
04 Dec 2012
It's very positive, much in line with what Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong spoke to me in Phnom Penh recently that we should call for "win-win" proposals," he said. - Bernama. ....(size: 1.2Kb)
The Star
04 Dec 2012
JOHOR BARU. Malaysia and Singapore are expected to announce "win-win" proposals for the two countries at their annual consultation next year, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said Tuesday ... "The meeting went very well. It's very positive, much in line with what Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong spoke to me in Phnom Penh recently that we should call for 'win-win' proposals," he said ... It has a population estimated at 798,000 ... ....(size: 2.4Kb)
noodls
03 Dec 2012
Former US National Security Advisor and President of the Scowcroft Group, General Brent Scowcroft, called on Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the Istana this morning. . During the meeting, Prime Minister Lee and General Scowcroft exchanged views on a wide range ......(size: 1.7Kb)
photo: WN / RTayco
03 Dec 2012
Singapore, Dec 3 (IANS) Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has said that the government is no longer aiming for "ridiculously high" economic growth like those seen in the past years, but rather a more sustainable rate of about 2 to 3 percent per year, local media reported Monday ... As our workforce grows more slowly in future, even 2 to 3 percent will be considered good growth," Lee said....(size: 3.5Kb)
noodls
02 Dec 2012
A Ministerial delegation from Myanmar, led by Union Minister in the President's Office and Chairman of the Myanmar Investment Commission (MIC) U Soe Thane, will be in Singapore on 3 December 2012 for a five-day study visit ... During the visit, Union Minister U Soe Thane and his delegation will call on PM Lee Hsien Loong and be hosted to dinner by Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong ... . . MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS. SINGAPORE....(size: 2.9Kb)
noodls
01 Dec 2012
This reciprocated the visit in May 1973 by Mr Lee Kuan Yew to Indonesia, where he had sprinkled flowers on the graves of two Marines who had been executed for setting off a bomb that killed 3 people at MacDonald House during Konfrontasi in March 1965 ... 39 On the diplomatic front, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong supported Indonesian President Yudhoyono's initiative to convene a Special ASEAN Leaders' Meeting in Jakarta....(size: 33.9Kb)
noodls
30 Nov 2012
39. On the diplomatic front, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong supported Indonesian President Yudhoyono's initiative to convene a Special ASEAN Leaders' Meeting in Jakarta. PM Lee was the first foreign leader to visit the disaster zone in Meulaboh and Banda Aceh on 4 January 2005....(size: 38.2Kb)
Bloomberg
28 Nov 2012
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong comments on the country’s birth rate, property market, monetary policy and economy ... 26 interview in his office in Singapore ... “It’s a big issue ... “I don’t think we would be able” to move to an interest- rate regime from using the currency as the main policy tool, Lee said ... On what the most important thing for the nation is as it moves beyond former Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew’s guiding voice. ... ....(size: 13.0Kb)
Bloomberg
27 Nov 2012
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said encouraging citizens to have more children is the biggest challenge confronting the island nation if it wishes to remain an economic juggernaut in the developed world. The government hasn’t succeeded in impressing on citizens that “this is going to be a retirement home and not a vibrant city” if the population is unsustained, Lee, 60, said in an interview in his office in Singapore on Nov....(size: 9.6Kb)
NZ Herald
23 Nov 2012
Prime Minister John Key is the first NZ premier to visit Burma. Long a pariah state, the East Asian nation - known in the West from Rudyard Kipling's poem Mandalay - is cautiously emerging from decades of military rule ... Certainly [President Susilo Bambang] Yudhoyono of Indonesia and [Prime Minister] Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore have been very much of the view that [Burmese President] Thein Sein is quite genuine in his progress ... By. ....(size: 7.5Kb)
The Times of India
22 Nov 2012
PHNOM PENH ... China said such a consensus existed ... That communique, too, was amended. In a direct criticism of China's position on the South China Sea, PM Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore said at the East Asia Summit that he hoped the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China would soon start formal talks on a code of conduct that would reduce the risk of conflict over the sea. ....(size: 2.5Kb)
| Lee Hsien Loong | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Lee Hsien-Loong at the 2012 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting. | |
| Prime Minister of Singapore | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 12 August 2004 |
|
| President | Sellapan Ramanathan Tony Tan |
| Deputy | Tony Tan Shunmugam Jayakumar Wong Kan Seng Teo Chee Hean Tharman Shanmugaratnam |
| Preceded by | Goh Chok Tong |
| Secretary-General of the People's Action Party | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 12 August 2004 |
|
| Deputy | Wong Kan Seng Teo Chee Hean |
| Preceded by | Goh Chok Tong |
| Minister for Finance | |
| In office 2001 – 1 December 2007 |
|
| Prime Minister | Goh Chok Tong |
| Deputy | Raymond Lim |
| Preceded by | Richard Hu |
| Succeeded by | Tharman Shanmugaratnam |
| Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore | |
| In office 28 November 1990 – 12 August 2004 |
|
| Prime Minister | Goh Chok Tong |
| Preceded by | Goh Chok Tong |
| Succeeded by | Shunmugam Jayakumar |
| Member of the Singapore Parliament for Ang Mo Kio GRC |
|
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 31 August 1991 |
|
| Preceded by | Constituency established |
| Majority | 47,157 (32.2%) |
| Member of the Singapore Parliament for Teck Ghee SMC |
|
| In office 22 December 1984 – 31 August 1991 |
|
| Preceded by | Constituency established |
| Succeeded by | Constituency abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1952-02-10) 10 February 1952 (age 60) Singapore |
| Political party | People's Action Party |
| Spouse(s) | Wong Ming Yang (1978-1982) Ho Ching (1985-present) |
| Children | Xiuqi Yipeng Hongyi Haoyi |
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge Harvard University United States Army Command and General Staff College |
| Lee Hsien Loong | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 李显龙 | ||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 李顯龍 | ||||||||||||||||
| Hanyu Pinyin | Lǐ Xiǎnlóng | ||||||||||||||||
|
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 |
This article contains Chinese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters. |
Lee Hsien Loong (born 10 February 1952) is the third and current Prime Minister of Singapore, and the eldest son of Singapore's first Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew.
As a member of the People's Action Party (PAP), Lee became Prime Minister in August 2004, succeeding Goh Chok Tong. He has been a Member of Parliament (MP) since 1984 and a member of the Cabinet since 1987, and was one of the key leaders in Singapore's political transition in the 1980s and 1990s. Before becoming Prime Minister he served as the Minister for Trade and Industry, Minister for Finance and Deputy Prime Minister. Prior to his election to Parliament, he served as an officer in the Singapore Armed Forces, rising to the rank of Brigadier-General.
Contents |
Background and education[link]
The eldest child of former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew and the late Madam Kwa Geok Choo, Lee Hsien Loong was born in Singapore on 10 February 1952. His paternal grandmother, Chua Jim Neo, was a Hokkien Nyonya, and his mother has ancestry from Tong'an District, Xiamen, in the Fujian province of China.[1][2] According to Lee Kuan Yew's biography, the young Lee had learned Jawi script from the age of five, and has always been interested in the affairs of Singapore, often following his father to the rally grounds since 1963.
Lee studied at Nanyang Primary School and received his secondary education at Catholic High School, before going on to National Junior College (where he learned the clarinet under the tutelage of Adjunct Associate Professor Ho Hwee Long). In 1971, he was awarded a President's Scholarship and Singapore Armed Forces Overseas Scholarship by the Public Service Commission to study in the United Kingdom at Cambridge University, where he read Mathematics at Trinity College. He graduated in 1974 with First Class Honours in Mathematics and a Diploma in Computer Science (with distinction). In 1980, he completed a Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Military career[link]
Lee joined the Singapore Armed Forces in 1971. In 1978, he attended the US Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth. Lee rose quickly through the ranks in the Army, becoming the youngest Brigadier-General in Singapore's history after his promotion in July 1983. He left the military in 1984 to pursue civilian politics.[3]
Early political career[link]
In the 1980s, Lee was regarded as one of the next key leaders in the People's Action Party leadership transition that was taking place in the mid-1980s, as Lee Kuan Yew had declared that he would eventually step down as Prime Minister in 1984. Following the Singaporean general election, 1984, all the old Central Executive Committee members had resigned on 1 January 1985, except for Lee Kuan Yew himself.[4]
Lee was elected a Member of Parliament in 1984 at the age of 32. Following his election, he was appointed a Minister of State at the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Defence by his father, who was the Prime Minister at the time.
In 1985, Lee chaired the government's Economic Committee, which recommended changes to established government policies to reduce business costs, foster longer-term growth and revive the Singapore economy, which was experiencing a recession at the time. The committee's recommendations included reductions in corporate and personal taxes and the introduction of a consumption tax.
In 1986, Lee was made the Acting Minister for Trade and Industry. In 1987, he became a full member of the Cabinet as the Minister for Trade and Industry and Second Minister for Defence.
Lee was the chairman of the PAP Youth Committee, the predecessor to the Young PAP, when it was established in 1986, while he was still a brigadier-general. The PAP had been undergoing leadership transition, and many of its key leaders were aging, with younger replacements scarce. PAP branches were urged to recruit 40-50 members each. Lee envisioned there would be a lot of young people who were "idealistic, patriotic, nationalistic, keen to work for the nation." Lee's goal was to maintain the pre-eminence of the PAP such that "when the people think about the government of Singapore, if they think about the future of Singapore, then they will think about the PAP". Lee also said that the youth wing would be a channel in which the youth could communicate dissent, in which otherwise they might be "tempted" to vote for the Opposition and bring the PAP government down.[5]
Deputy Prime Minister[link]
On 28 November 1990, Goh Chok Tong took over from Lee Kuan Yew as Singapore's Prime Minister, and Lee Hsien Loong was made one of two Deputy Prime Ministers (along with the late Mr Ong Teng Cheong). He also continued to serve as the Minister for Trade and Industry until 1992.
In 1992, Lee was diagnosed with lymphoma and underwent a three-month period of chemotherapy. When his treatment began, he relinquished his position as the Minister for Trade and Industry, though he continued to be a Deputy Prime Minister. His chemotherapy was successful, and his cancer has since gone into remission.
Lee was appointed Chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore in 1998, and in 2001 he was made the Minister for Finance.
To ease the growing budget deficit due to falling tax revenues from cuts in corporate and personal income taxes and other factors such as the Iraq War and SARS outbreak, Lee proposed on 29 August 2003 to raise the GST from three percent to five percent, a change which took place in January 2004.
Lee also initiated several relaxations of the requirements for Singapore citizenship, notably for foreign-born children of Singaporean women.[6] The changes were made after repeated pleas from MPs and the Remaking Singapore Committee.
In the sphere of domestic politics, Lee played a key role as Deputy Prime Minister. In a media interview in 1996, ahead of the 1997 general election, he outlined what the ruling party looked for in its candidates for Members of Parliament.[7]
On the international front, Lee helped build relations with other countries as far away as New Zealand.[8]
Prime Minister[link]
2004[link]
In the months leading up to Lee taking over as Singapore's third Prime Minister in 2004, he was already signalling reforms in some key areas, including ceding more space to the private and people sectors. Of the government's role, he said in a speech: "Nanny should not look after everything all the time".[9]
On 12 August 2004, Lee Hsien Loong succeeded Goh Chok Tong as Prime Minister and relinquished his Chairmanship of the Monetary Authority of Singapore to Goh. Lee was sworn in by Chief Justice Yong Pung How at the Istana.
Lee made his maiden National Day Rally on 12 August 2004. In his speech, Lee initiated the policy of the "Five-day work week", a plan that would remove a half-working day on Saturday. The plan took effect on 1 January 2005.
Lee also proposed two-month paid maternity leave for mothers of newborn children and financial incentives to mothers who give birth to a fourth child. These policies were initiated in response to the declining birth rate that Singapore has experienced in recent years.
In November 2004, Lee sparked a national debate when he revealed a proposal to build two Integrated Resorts (IRs) which are holiday resorts with casinos. In April 2005, despite substantial opposition expressed by the public, Lee announced the decision to approve the proposal. The two IRs are to be built in Marina Bay and Sentosa. To limit the negative social impact of casino gambling, Lee suggested that safeguards be implemented, such as prohibiting minors from entering the casinos and charging a SGD$100 entrance fee for Singaporeans and permanent residents or SGD$2000 for a year-long entrance fee.
2006 General Election[link]
In February 2006, three months before the General Election, Lee announced in parliament a S$2.6 billion bonus called the Progress Package.[10][dead link] The plan was to distribute budget surpluses accumulated from the past few years to adult Singaporeans in the form of cash to everyone, top-ups to the state pension savings for elders, rental and utilities rebates for those living in public housing, educational funds for school children from low-income families, and cash bonuses for low-wage workers above 40 and for those men who have completed National Service. The cash bonuses was distributed in early May 2006.
Critics, especially members of the opposition, have slammed the Progress Package as a "vote-buying exercise" for the Singapore parliamentary election held on 6 May 2006. In that election, Lee led the People's Action Party to win 82 of the 84 seats, including 37 walkovers. Lee and his 6-member team won the Ang Mo Kio Group Representation Constituency with 96,591 (60.42%) votes out of the total 159,872 votes cast. Most of the opposition WP's team of 6 were in their 20s and the constituency was contested for the first time in 15 years.
Its decision to contest Ang Mo Kio came as a surprise, as the opposition was expected to stay away from GRCs helmed by heavyweight ministers; but the party said that giving Ang Mo Kio residents a chance to vote was a prime reason for contesting the GRC. Given the inexperience of the WP team and Lee Hsien Loong's position as the Prime Minister, they won a surprisingly strong 49,468 votes (30.94%). There were also an extremely high percentage of void votes: 13,813 (8.64%).
2010[link]
In May 2010, Lee instituted electoral reforms to the current electoral system by reducing the number of Group representation constituencies (GRC), increased the number of Non-constituency Members of Parliament (NCMPs) to a maximum of nine (inclusive of the number of elected opposition members of Parliament), and the number of Nominated Members of Parliament (NMPs) permanent also to nine. Also part of the reforms was the legalization of internet campaigning and mandating a "cooling-off" day where campaigning is prohibited except for party political broadcasts.
2011[link]
Effective 1 June 2011, Lee was named chairman of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation which manages more than $100 billion of assets. He succeeds his father, Lee Kuan Yew, who will remain as senior advisor to the fund.[11]
2011 General Election[link]
Main article: Singaporean general election, 2011
In April 2011, a general election was called for 7 May 2011. For the second time, the PAP was not return to government on Nomination Day with only one uncontested walkover. In the final results, the PAP saw a 6.46% swing against the it from the 2006 elections to 60.14%, its lowest since independence.[12] While the PAP met most expectations to sweep into power and claim over two-thirds of parliamentary seats, it won 81 out of 87 seats, and lost Aljunied Group Representation Constituency to the Workers' Party of Singapore, the first time a GRC was won by an opposition party. Two cabinet ministers namely Foreign Minister George Yeo Yong-Boon and Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Lim Hwee Hua were defeated.[13]
Later on, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew and Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong tendered their resignations from the Cabinet, stating that they wished to give the Prime Minister a "fresh clean slate" in forming the Government and enable him to "have a completely younger team of ministers to connect to and engage with this young generation".[14] Lee and Goh were appointed as senior advisers to the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) respectively.[15]
Lee was sworn-in into a second term on 21 May 2011. His new cabinet included three newly appointed ministers namely, S. Iswaran, formerly Senior Minister of State for Education and for Trade and Industry, was elevated to the Cabinet as Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, and Second Minister for Home Affairs and for Trade and Industry. Heng Swee Keat and Chan Chun Sing, both elected to Parliament for the first time, were respectively assigned the posts of Minister for Education, and Acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports and Minister of State for the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts.[16] Heng was the first new MP directly appointed a full minister since 1984.[17]
Foreign relations[link]
- China
Relations with China have improved under Lee's administration. Smooth progress has been made in areas of trade, tourism and investment, which is not merely in accordance with the interest of the two countries, but promises to be beneficial to the common development of the region. The China-Singapore Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC) is responsible for promoting Sino-Singaporean co-operation.
During his meeting with vice-premier Wu Yi in September 2005, Lee proposed the establishment of a China-ASEAN Free Trade Zone, which would achieve the goal of realizing US$50 billion in trade volume before 2010. In doing so, both agreed that relations between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) should be elevated.
During his seven-day visit to China in late October 2005, the Prime Minister stressed the need of improving bilateral diplomatic relationships between ASEAN and China. Lee also urged leaders to focus on the next wave of growth in north-eastern China, saying:
"It is a long-term commitment. There is no place in the world that you can go in and your money just grows on trees. Not in China."
- United States
Singapore has generally had a favourable relationship with the United States. The growth of bilateral trade improved commercial and diplomatic ties between the two countries after the implementation of the U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreement and the growth in bilateral trade has been evident since the Free Trade Agreement became effective on 1 January 2004.
Lee made his inaugural visit to the United States, as Prime Minister of Singapore, between 6 July and 16 July 2005. Several other ministers, notably the defence minister Teo Chee Hean and foreign minister George Yeo, accompanied Lee.
On 12 July 2005, President George W Bush and Lee signed the "Strategic Framework Agreement between the United States of America and the Republic of Singapore for a Closer Cooperation Partnership in Defence and Security". The agreement was a natural step in the expansion of bilateral ties. President Bush and the then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong had first announced their intention to conclude this agreement in October 2003.
The intention of the agreement is to address common threats such as terrorism and the proliferation of Weapons of mass destruction (WMD), which called for even closer cooperation between the United States and Singapore.
The agreement recognizes Singapore's role as a Major Security Cooperation Partner and will expand the scope of current cooperation in areas such as counter-terrorism, counter-proliferation, joint military exercises and training, policy dialogues and defence technology. The Agreement will further enhance regional stability by supporting the continued security presence of the United States in Southeast Asia.
Both Lee and Bush agree that US presence in Southeast Asia has promoted peace and stability, which are crucial for regional cooperation and economic development.
During their meeting, both Bush and Lee acknowledged the progress in the war on terror. Lee commended Bush's 'resolute and steadfast stance in the war on terror' and expressed Singapore’s continued support in this endeavour. In exchange, Bush commended the professionalism of the Singapore Armed Forces personnel, who have been deployed in support of Iraq operations over the past two years and of the Singapore Police Force, which has provided critically important training. Both Bush and Lee also pledged to sustain the close cooperation between the United States and Singapore in key regional and global multilateral institutions.
Controversies[link]
As the eldest son of Singapore's first Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, Lee's career has been shadowed by allegations of nepotism.[18][19][20] At the age of 32 he became the youngest Brigadier-General in Singapore's history, and from a young age was widely tipped to be Lee Kuan Yew's successor as Prime Minister. When Lee Kuan Yew stepped down as Prime Minister to make way for his successor, Goh Chok Tong, several critics had seen Goh as a seat-warmer, but Lee Kuan Yew said he had disproved that. In his memoirs, Lee Kuan Yew stressed that he could not have his son directly succeed him.
"It was better that someone else succeed me as Prime Minister. Then were Loong to make the grade later, it would be clear that he made it on his own merit."
However, such allegations by critics held on for six to seven years until Goh managed to prove his worth by regaining seats and pushing up the PAP's vote share in the 1997 elections. The appointment of Lee's wife Ho Ching as the director of state investment agency Temasek has also raised some eyebrows.[18]
The Lees have reacted strongly against these allegations by taking legal action, often winning large out-of-court settlements for defamation from, among others, the International Herald Tribune (1994),[19] Bloomberg (2002), The Economist (2004) and the Financial Times (2007).[20]
Taiwan[link]
On 10 July 2004, Lee visited Taiwan, causing displeasure in the People's Republic of China. On 28 August 2004 in his maiden National Day Rally speech, he criticized the Taiwanese leadership and populace of overestimating the support they would receive if they were to declare Taiwan independence. At the same time, he also clarified during the rally that his visit to Taiwan in July was to ensure he gathered enough intelligence to make the right decisions when he took over the baton as Prime Minister. He reiterated his support for the One-China policy. Later that year in September, Foreign Minister George Yeo cautioned the United Nations General Assembly about the dangers of letting the cross-strait relationship deteriorate. In response, an enraged Taiwan Foreign Minister, Mark Chen, called Singapore a "Pi-Sai Country", translated literally from Taiwanese, it means a "country no bigger than a booger." The Taiwanese Foreign Minister later made a formal apology.
Defamation judgment[link]
On 24 September 2008, High Court, in a summary judgment by Justice Woo Bih Li, ruled that the Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER) magazine-Hugo Restall, editor, defamed Lee Kuan Yew and his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. The court found the 2006 article "Singapore's 'Martyr': Chee Soon Juan" meant that Lee Kuan Yew "has been running and continues to run Singapore in the same corrupt manner as Durai operated NKF and he has been using libel actions to suppress those who would question to avoid exposure of his corruption." FEER has 30 days to appeal.[21] The court sentenced FEER publisher and editor, owned by Dow Jones & Company (in turn owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp), to pay damages to complainants.[22]
Defamation lawsuit[link]
In 2010, Lee Hsien Loong, together with the two former prime minister preceded him, Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Chok Tong, threatened legal action against The New York Times Company which owns the International Herald Tribune regarding an Op-Ed piece titled ‘All in the Family’ of 15 February 2010 by Philip Bowring, a freelance columnist and former editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review. The Herald Tribute apologized in March that readers of the article may ‘infer that the younger Lee did not achieve his position through merit’. The Times and Bowring also agreed to pay SG$60,000 to Lee, SG$50,000 to Lee Kuan Yew and SG$50,000 to Goh (total amounted to about US$114,000 at the time), in addition to legal costs. The case stemmed from a 1994 settlement between the three Singaporean leaders and the paper about an article also by Bowring that referred to ‘dynastic politics’ in East Asian countries including Singapore. In that settlement, Bowring agreed not to say or imply that the younger Lee had attained his position through nepotism by his father Lee Kuan Yew. In response, media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders wrote an open letter to urge Lee and other top officials of the Singapore government to stop taking ‘libel actions’ against journalists.[23][24][25][26]
Salary[link]
From 2008 to 2012, Lee Hsien Loong earned an annual salary of S$3,870,000 (US$2,856,930),[27] an increase of 25% from the previous S$3,091,200 (US$2,037,168).[28] In January 2012, Lee Hsien Loong took a 28% paycut reducing his salary to S$2.2 million (US$1.7 million).[29][30][31] He remains the highest-paid premier in the world.[32]
Personal life[link]
Lee's first wife, Malaysian-born doctor Wong Ming Yang, died at age 31 on 28 October 1982 of a heart attack,[33] three weeks after giving birth to Lee's first son Li Yipeng, an autistic albino. In 1985 when he was at age 33, Lee married Ms Ho Ching, a fast-rising civil servant who subsequently became the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of Temasek Holdings. They have one daughter named Xiuqi and three sons respectively named Yipeng, Hongyi and Haoyi, including one daughter and son from Lee's first wife. (The oldest son of Ho Ching, Li Hongyi, was the winner of the Lee Kuan Yew Award for Math & Science in 2006, the same year he was commissioned as an officer in the Singapore Armed Forces.)
Honours[link]
- Orden El Sol del Perú en el grado de Gran Cruz con Brillantes (Order of the Sun - Peru), bestowed 22 November 2008.[34]
- Olympic Order (Gold), conferred 13 August 2010.[35]
References[link]
- Citations
- ^ 新加坡內閣資政李光耀 Xinhua.com
- ^ 李光耀劝扁勿藉奥运搞台独 Zaobao.com
- ^ Career History
- ^ Chan, Heng Chee (1986). Singapre in 1985: Managing Political Transition and Economic Recession. University of California Press. pp. 158–167. JSTOR 2644451.
- ^ "Our History". Young PAP. http://www.youngpap.org.sg/about/history/. Retrieved 7 January 2011.
- ^ http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/push-rights-singapore-womens-foreign-born
- ^ Koh, Buck Song. "The Making of a PAP Candidate", The Straits Times 12 October 1996
- ^ See, for example, "Kiwi government's 'look East' move gets little support from media" by Koh Buck Song, The Straits Times 24 March 1997
- ^ Quoted in Malakunas, Karl (7 Jan 2004) "Apron strings to loosen on Singapore's nanny state - future PM" Agence France-Presse, and analysed in Koh, Buck Song (2011) Brand Singapore: How Nation Branding Built Asia's Leading Global City, page 152
- ^ Progress Package Home Page
- ^ Lee Hsien Loong Named Chairman of GIC, Succeeding His Father, Lars, Klemming, Bloomberg News, 31 May 2011
- ^ Brown, Kevin (8 May 2011). "Singapore opposition makes historic gains". Financial Times. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ac59d4aa-7924-11e0-b655-00144feabdc0.html. Retrieved 9 May 2011.
- ^ "81 out of 87 seats for PAP". Straits Times. 8 May 2011. http://www.straitstimes.com/GeneralElection/News/Story/STIStory_666172.html. Retrieved 8 May 2011.
- ^ Singapore founding father Lee Kuan Yew resigns, BBC News, 14 May 2011, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13400296 ; Zuraidah Ibrahim (15 May 2011), "Lee Kuan Yew steps down: He and Goh Chok Tong retire to give PM room to break from the past", The Sunday Times (Singapore): A1–A2 ; Eugene K[heng] B[oon] Tan (16 May 2011), "A new, post-Lee Kuan Yew era: Departure reinforces belief that Singapore system based on institutions not personalities", Today, archived from the original on 18 May 2011, http://www.webcitation.org/5ymTThwjE .
- ^ Zakir Hussain (19 May 2011), "PM accepts MM, SM's offer to step down: They will be senior advisers to GIC, MAS respectively", The Straits Times: A3 ; Leong Wee Keat, "MM Lee and SM Goh to become Senior Advisers to GIC, MAS respectively", Today: 4, archived from the original on 19 May 2011, http://www.webcitation.org/5yn2EpRM5 .
- ^ Lydia Lim (19 May 2011), "Radical reshuffle", The Straits Times: A1 & A4 ; Loh Chee Kong, "PM goes for a 'radical change': I wanted a fresh start, says Prime Minister", Today: 1 & 3, archived from the original on 19 May 2011, http://www.webcitation.org/5yn252RLL .
- ^ Rachel Chang (19 May 2011), "First new MP named minister since 1984: But former MAS chief is heading Education, not Finance as some expected", The Straits Times: A7 ; Esther Ng (19 May 2011), "Immediate appointments not surprising", Today: 6, archived from the original on 19 May 2011, http://www.webcitation.org/5yn2Rmsj5 .
- ^ a b http://www.pmo.gov.sg/content/pmosite/mediacentre/inthenews/primeminister/2010/April/pm_lee_on_nepotismandhisfatherslegacy.html
- ^ a b "Singapore Answered Charge of Nepotism". The New York Times. 22 February 1996. http://www.nytimes.com/1996/02/22/opinion/l-singapore-answered-charge-of-nepotism-061069.html?src=pm.
- ^ a b Brook, Stephen (18 October 2007). "Financial Times apologises to Singapore PM over nepotism claims". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/oct/18/1.
- ^ news.bbc.co.uk, Editor 'defamed' Singapore leader
- ^ reuters.com, Singapore court rules FEER magazine defamed leaders
- ^ Richard Perez-Pena (2010-03-25). "Times Co. Settles Claim in Singapore". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/business/media/25times.html?adxnnl=1&ref=global&adxnnlx=1269630126-/pOpabLI8eqVE1l9rvVbZw. Retrieved 2010-03-25.
- ^ Alex Kennedy. "NY Times pays damages to Singapore leaders". AP. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gGg8uUSPiBjYefuEejHIS17FU7MAD9ELK1101. Retrieved 2010-03-25.
- ^ "New York Times to pay damages to Singapore leaders". AFP. http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iT7AgeoMNlFm88Nv9zofXLyb8ljw. Retrieved 2010-03-25.
- ^ "Stop suing journalists: RSF tells Singapore leaders". Bangkok Post. 2010-03-26. http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/172827/. Retrieved 2010-03-26.
- ^ Lee, Lynn. "Ministers, top civil servants to get 4% to 21% pay rise in Jan". Archived from the original on 2008-02-14. http://web.archive.org/web/20080214204343/http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest+News/Singapore/STIStory_186437.html.
- ^ Seth, Mydans (9 April 2007). "Singapore announces 60 percent pay raise for ministers". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/09/world/asia/09iht-sing.3.5200498.html. Retrieved 13 August 2010.
- ^ "Salaries Cut, Singapore Leaders Are Still Well-Paid". The Wall Street Journal. 18 January 2012. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204468004577168620110589932.html.
- ^ Mydans, Seth (23 January 2012). "Singapore Slashes Officials' Salaries". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/24/world/asia/singapore-slashes-officials-salaries.html.
- ^ http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hbVgohWniZoRruiupO9eT1Fnd6vQ?docId=CNG.8755c3628b023cdc70d2df419a357c4e.121
- ^ "Singapore faces growing pains as setbacks pile up". Reuters. 6 February 2012. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/06/uk-singapore-politics-idUSLNE81503N20120206.
- ^ Bertha Henson (1993-05-09). "It was a bolt from the blue". The Sunday Times / Asiaone. http://ourstory.asia1.com.sg/dream/lifeline/lee1.html. Retrieved 2008-08-19.
- ^ http://peru21.pe/noticia/221940/peru-espera-mayor-inversion-singapur-puertos-tecnologia
- ^ "S'pore presented with special Olympic flag". Channel NewsAsia. 2010-08-13. http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1075051/1/.html. Retrieved 2010-08-13.
- Bibliography
- "Hsien Loong: Election soon". (8 November 2005). New Straits Times, p. 31.
- PM Lee:Your vibrant global city, your home, The Straits Times, Headlines, p. 1.
- Singapore announces 60 percent pay raise for ministers New York Times.
- Koh, Buck Song (2011). Brand Singapore: How Nation Branding Built Asia's Leading Global City. Marshall Cavendish, Singapore. ISBN 978-981-4328-15-9.
External links[link]
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lee Hsien Loong |
 |
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Lee Hsien Loong |
- Prime Minister's Office Singapore official government website
- Mr. Lee Hsien Loong, MP official government website
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- Lee Hsien Loong on Charlie Rose
- Lee Hsien Loong at the Internet Movie Database
- Works by or about Lee Hsien Loong in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
- Lee Hsien Loong at the Notable Names Database
- Lee Hsien Loong collected news and commentary at CNN
- Lee Hsien Loong collected news and commentary at The Economic Times
- Lee Hsien Loong collected news and commentary at The Los Angeles Times
- Lee Hsien Loong collected news and commentary at The Wall Street Journal
- Lee Hsien Loong, The Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy on PBS, 2002
- Lee Hsien Loong official facebook page
- Profile: Lee Hsien Loong, BBC News, 11 August 2004
- Speeches
- "Transcript of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s National Day Rally English Speech on 19 August 2007 at NUS University Cultural Centre". Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (Singapore). 2007-08-19. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. http://web.archive.org/web/20070927033326/http://app.sprinter.gov.sg/data/pr/2007081907.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-19.
- "Transcript of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's National Day Rally 2008 Speech at NUS-UCC on 17 August 2008". Singapore Government Press Centre. 2008-08-17. Archived from the original on 2008-11-20. http://web.archive.org/web/20081120234856/http://app.sprinter.gov.sg/data/pr/20080819982.htm. Retrieved 2012-01-25.
| Parliament of Singapore | ||
|---|---|---|
| New constituency | Member of Parliament for Teck Ghee SMC 1984–1991 |
Constituency abolished |
| Member of Parliament for Ang Mo Kio GRC 1991–present |
Incumbent | |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Tony Tan Keng Yam |
Minister for Trade and Industry 1986–1992 |
Succeeded by Suppiah Dhanabalan |
| Preceded by Goh Chok Tong |
Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore 1990–2004 Served alongside: Ong Teng Cheong, Tony Tan Keng Yam |
Succeeded by Tony Tan Keng Yam |
| Preceded by Hu Tsu Tau Richard |
Minister for Finance 2001–2007 |
Succeeded by Tharman Shanmugaratnam |
| Preceded by Goh Chok Tong |
Prime Minister of Singapore 2004–present |
Incumbent |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by Goh Chok Tong |
Leader of the People's Action Party 2004–present |
Incumbent |
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Lee, Hsien Loong |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | |
| Date of birth | 1952-02-10 |
| Place of birth | Singapore |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
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This article is about the American journalist. For the talk show, see Charlie Rose (talk show). For other people with the same name, see Charlie Rose (disambiguation).
| Charlie Rose | |
|---|---|
 Rose in May 2010 |
|
| Born | Charles Peete Rose, Jr. (1942-01-05) January 5, 1942 (age 70) Henderson, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Education | Duke University B.A. (1964) Duke University J.D. (1968) |
| Occupation | Talk show host Journalist |
| Years active | 1972–present |
| Notable credit(s) | Charlie Rose, 60 Minutes II, 60 Minutes, CBS News Nightwatch, CBS This Morning |
| Website | |
| http://www.charlierose.com/ | |
Charles Peete "Charlie" Rose, Jr. (born January 5, 1942)[1] is an American television talk show host and journalist. Since 1991 he has hosted Charlie Rose, an interview show distributed nationally by PBS since 1993. He has also co-anchored CBS This Morning since January 2012. Rose, along with Lara Logan, has hosted the revived CBS classic Person to Person, a news program during which celebrities are interviewed in their homes, originally hosted from 1953 to 1961 by Edward R. Murrow.[2]
Contents |
Early life[link]
Rose was born in Henderson, North Carolina, the only child[3] of Margaret Frazier and Charles Peete Rose, Sr., tobacco farmers who owned a country store.[4][5] As a child, Rose lived above his parents' store in Henderson and helped out with the family business from age seven.[6] Rose admitted in a Fresh Dialogues interview that as a child his insatiable curiosity was constantly getting him in trouble.[7] A high school basketball star, Rose entered Duke University intending to pursue a degree with a pre-med track, but an internship in the office of Democratic North Carolina Senator B. Everett Jordan got him interested in politics.[8] Rose graduated in 1964 with a bachelor's degree in history. At Duke, he was a member of the Kappa Alpha Order fraternity. He earned a Juris Doctor from the Duke University School of Law in 1968.[6] He met his wife, Mary (née King), while attending Duke.[3][4]
Career[link]
After his wife was hired by the BBC (in New York), Rose handled some assignments for the BBC on a freelance basis. In 1972, while continuing to work at Bankers Trust, he landed a job as a weekend reporter for WPIX-TV. His break came in 1974, after Bill Moyers hired Rose as managing editor for the PBS series Bill Moyers' International Report. In 1975, Moyers named Rose executive producer of Bill Moyers Journal. Rose soon began appearing on camera. "A Conversation with Jimmy Carter," one installment of Moyers's series U.S.A.: People and Politics, won a 1976 Peabody Award. Rose worked at several networks honing his interview skills until KXAS-TV in Dallas-Fort Worth hired him as program manager and gave him the late-night time slot that would become the Charlie Rose show.
Rose worked for CBS News (1984–1990) as the anchor of CBS News Nightwatch, the network's first late-night news broadcast. The Nightwatch broadcast of Rose's interview with Charles Manson won an Emmy Award in 1987.[4] In 1990, Rose left CBS to serve as anchor of Personalities, a syndicated program produced by Fox Broadcasting Company, but he got out of his contract after six weeks because of the tabloid-style content of the show. Charlie Rose premiered on PBS station Thirteen/WNET on September 30, 1991, and has been nationally syndicated since January 1993. In 1994, Rose moved the show to a studio owned by Bloomberg Television, which allowed for improved satellite interviewing.[9]
Rose was a correspondent for 60 Minutes II[10] from its inception in January 1999 until its cancellation in September 2005, and was later named a correspondent on 60 Minutes.[11]
Rose was a member of the board of directors of Citadel Broadcasting Corporation from 2003 to 2009.[3] In May 2010, Charlie Rose delivered the commencement address at North Carolina State University.
On November 15, 2011, it was announced that Rose would return to CBS to help anchor CBS This Morning, replacing The Early Show, commencing January 9, 2012, along with co-anchors Erica Hill and Gayle King.
Cameo appearances[link]
Rose has appeared as himself in the 1998 film Primary Colors,[12] in a 2000 episode of The Simpsons[13] and in the 2008 movie Elegy.[14] He and his show were also used in the Wes Anderson film The Royal Tenenbaums. He also appears as himself in the 2011 George Clooney directed film, The Ides of March.
[edit] Accusations of conflict of interest
While hosting the 2002 Coca-Cola Company shareholders' meeting, Rose said "few companies are able to connect as completely with consumers in the way that Coca-Cola is. It is a privilege to be associated with [The Coca-Cola family] ... This is the business of Coca-Cola: being part of a family, being worldwide, doing well and doing good at the same time."[15] Afterward, Coca-Cola agreed to become what Rose called "a leading underwriter" of The Charlie Rose Show, paying "six or possibly seven figures."[16] Even the Charlie Rose mugs used on his PBS show feature a Coca-Cola logo on one side.[17][18] Although CBS News policy bars correspondents from doing commercials and product endorsements, the Washington Post reported CBS was "comfortable" with Rose's actions. Rose insists he "would never do a story on 60 Minutes II about anybody who underwrites my PBS show."[16]
[edit] Quiet influence
The New York Times reported that Rose encouraged a discussion between the leaders of NBC and Fox, that led eventually to a mutual reduction in ad hominem attacks between Keith Olbermann and Bill O'Reilly on their respective news programs.[19]
Rose has attended several Bilderberg Group conference meetings, including meetings held in the United States in 2008;[20] Spain in 2010;[21] and Switzerland in 2011.[22] These unofficial conferences hold guests from North America and Western Europe, most of whom are political leaders and businessmen. Details of meetings are closed off to the public and strictly invitation-only, and critics[who?] speculate the controversial nature of these meetings of highly influential people. Accusations from conspiracy theorists against The Charlie Rose show claim that it has become the US media outlet for Bilderberg.[23][unreliable source?]
Personal life[link]
Rose's twelve-year marriage to Mary Rose (née King) ended in divorce in 1980. Mary is the sister-in-law of Morgan Stanley Chairman John J. Mack. Since 1993, his companion has been socialite and chairman of the New York City Planning Commission and director of the city department of planning Amanda Burden, a stepdaughter of CBS founder William S. Paley.[24]
On March 29, 2006, after experiencing shortness of breath in Syria, Rose was flown to Paris and underwent surgery for mitral valve repair in the Georges-Pompidou European Hospital. His surgery was performed under the supervision of Alain F. Carpentier, a pioneer of the procedure.[25] Rose returned to the air on June 12, 2006, with Bill Moyers and Yvette Vega (the show's executive producer), to discuss his surgery and recuperation.
In a 2009 Fresh Dialogues interview, Rose described his life as "great and glorious."[7] He added, '"I get up every morning with a new adventure. The adventure is fueled by interesting people. I get a chance to control my own destiny. I do something that is immediately either appreciated or not. I get feedback."
Rose owns a 575-acre (2.33 km2) farm in Oxford, North Carolina, an apartment overlooking Central Park in New York City, a beach house in Bellport, New York, an apartment in Washington D.C.[3] and an apartment in Paris, France.
References[link]
- ^ Marks, Peter (January 5, 1993). "The Love Cult of Charlie Rose". Newsday: p. 42.
- ^ "Charlie Rose, Lara Logan on "Person to Person". Person to Person (CBS News). February 8, 2012. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505383_162-57373639/charlie-rose-lara-logan-on-person-to-person/. Retrieved May 3, 2012.
- ^ a b c d Kaplan, David A. (September 28, 2009). "Why business loves Charlie Rose". Fortune. http://money.cnn.com/2009/09/25/magazines/fortune/charlie_rose.fortune/index.htm?section=money_latest. Retrieved December 18, 2009.
- ^ a b c O'Shaughnessy, Elise (September 1993). "The Fame of the Rose". Vanity Fair 56 (9): pp. 172–181. ISSN 0733-8899.
- ^ "Charlie Rose Biography (1942–)". Filmreference.com. January 5, 1942. http://www.filmreference.com/film/1/Charlie-Rose.html. Retrieved December 8, 2011.
- ^ a b Charlie Rose biography from Bloomberg News
- ^ a b van Diggelen, Alison (February 26, 2009). "Transcript of Interview with Charlie Rose". Fresh Dialogues. http://www.freshdialogues.com/2009/02/26/transcript-of-fresh-dialogues-with-charlie-rose/. Retrieved February 7, 2012.
- ^ The North Carolina Awards: Charlie Rose (1942 -) Public Service 2007 from the website of the State Library of North Carolina
- ^ Charlie Rose, Bloomberg News
- ^ 60 Minutes II profile from CBS News
- ^ "Charlie Rose". CBS News. January 17, 2008. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/17/60minutes/bios/main3725276.shtml. Retrieved December 6, 2009.
- ^ Charlie Rose at the Internet Movie Database
- ^ Nancy Basile. ""The Simpsons" Episode Guide – Season Eleven". About.com. http://animatedtv.about.com/od/thesimpsonsepisodes/a/epguidesimp11.htm. Retrieved September 12, 2008.
- ^ Leslie Felperin (February 10, 2008). "Review of Elegy". Variety. http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=review&id=2478&reviewid=VE1117936157&starting=1. Retrieved August 8, 2008.
- ^ audio, aired on Le Show
- ^ a b Lloyd Grove, "The Reliable Source," Washington Post, April 23, 2002, C03
- ^ Orange County Weekly, January 24, 2003
- ^ Fear & Favor 2003: How power shapes the news, Extra!, FAIR, March/April 2003
- ^ Stelter, Brian (August 1, 2009). "Voices From Above Silence a Cable TV Feud". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/01/business/media/01feud.html. Retrieved November 7, 2010.
- ^ Fobes, Stefan (June 23, 2008). "My analysis of Bilderberg 2008". A War of Illusions. WordPress.com. http://warofillusions.wordpress.com/2008/06/23/my-analysis-of-bilderberg-2008. Retrieved August 25, 2011.
- ^ "Bilderberg 2010 list of participants". BilderbergMeetings.org. http://www.bilderbergmeetings.org/participants_2010.html. Retrieved August 25, 2011.
- ^ "Bilderberg 2011 list of participants". BilderbergMeetings.org. http://www.bilderbergmeetings.org/participants_2011.html. Retrieved August 25, 2011.
- ^ Newman, Alex (June 12, 2011). "Awareness of Bilderberg Cabal Explodes in 2011". The New American. http://thenewamerican.com/world-mainmenu-26/europe-mainmenu-35/7841-awareness-of-bilderberg-cabal-explodes-in-2011. Retrieved August 25, 2011.
- ^ Gardner, Ralph (May 13, 2002). "Social Planner". Nymag.com. http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/politics/newyork/features/6005/. Retrieved December 8, 2011.
- ^ Kaplan, David A. (September 28, 2009). "Why business loves Charlie Rose". CNN. http://money.cnn.com/2009/09/25/magazines/fortune/charlie_rose.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2009092811. Retrieved December 8, 2011.
External links[link]
 |
This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (March 2012) |
- Charlie Rose Official website of his eponymous show
- Charlie Rose official channel on YouTube
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- Charlie Rose at the Internet Movie Database
- Charlie Rose collected news and commentary at the Los Angeles Times
- Charlie Rose collected news and commentary at The New York Times
- Charlie Rose at the Notable Names Database
- Charlie Rose shows on Hulu
- celebritynetworth.com, Celebrity Net Worth, Charlie Rose
- Why Business Loves Charlie Rose David A. Kaplan, Fortune, September 28, 2009
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Rose, Charlie |
| Alternative names | Rose, Charles Peete, Jr. |
| Short description | American TV interviewer and journalist |
| Date of birth | 1942-01-05 |
| Place of birth | Henderson, North Carolina |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
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