China’s Foreign Affairs Minister Wang Yi asked a favour of Singapore
media – he wanted his well wishes conveyed to a taxi driver he met while
hiking.
Wang was here in Singapore for the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting from
August 1 to 5. He met Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong while he was here
and both countries reaffirmed their “long-standing and warm” bilateral
relations.
A morning of history In a video uploaded by Xinhua Hong Kong — one of the regional headquarters of the Chinese official state-run press — titled “Let Wang Yi tell you a story: Peace doesn’t come by easily, treasure it”, Wang was filmed telling the reporters about an encounter with a Singaporean taxi driver.
In short, he met this driver while hiking by chance. He said that the driver spent some time sharing about the part of Singapore’s history when Japan invaded it, and how the area they were hiking in was bombarded by the Japanese during the war.
Both Singapore and China were invaded by the Japanese during the Second World War — the Empire of Japan occupied the former for around three years and the latter for around eight years.
Here’s the full translated transcript of what he said:
“Let me tell you a short story about what happened while I was hiking yesterday morning.
On the way up during the hike, I ran into a Singaporean man, probably a regular civilian.
For a while, we chatted while hiking up together. We hit it off right away.
He told me a lot about Singapore’s history.
Coincidentally, there were a lot of traces of World War II left on the hill (that they were hiking in).
He took the time to tell me all about it, including how after the Japanese invaded Singapore and bombed the hill, many craters were formed on the hill.
This part of history lets us both appreciate the importance of peace. We should protect the current peace we have together.
At the beginning, he didn’t know who I was.
Later, as we were parting, we ran into many Chinese tourists.
That was when this person realised who I was.
When I turned around to say goodbye to him, he had quietly left.
This encounter has been on my mind ever since. So I want to ask the reporters in Singapore to reach out to him.
I heard from my colleague he is a taxi driver.
Please tell him this: Hey, buddy, I wish you the best of health, and happiness in your life.”......
https://mothership.sg/2018/08/wang-yi-si...xi-driver/
A morning of history In a video uploaded by Xinhua Hong Kong — one of the regional headquarters of the Chinese official state-run press — titled “Let Wang Yi tell you a story: Peace doesn’t come by easily, treasure it”, Wang was filmed telling the reporters about an encounter with a Singaporean taxi driver.
In short, he met this driver while hiking by chance. He said that the driver spent some time sharing about the part of Singapore’s history when Japan invaded it, and how the area they were hiking in was bombarded by the Japanese during the war.
Both Singapore and China were invaded by the Japanese during the Second World War — the Empire of Japan occupied the former for around three years and the latter for around eight years.
Here’s the full translated transcript of what he said:
“Let me tell you a short story about what happened while I was hiking yesterday morning.
On the way up during the hike, I ran into a Singaporean man, probably a regular civilian.
For a while, we chatted while hiking up together. We hit it off right away.
He told me a lot about Singapore’s history.
Coincidentally, there were a lot of traces of World War II left on the hill (that they were hiking in).
He took the time to tell me all about it, including how after the Japanese invaded Singapore and bombed the hill, many craters were formed on the hill.
This part of history lets us both appreciate the importance of peace. We should protect the current peace we have together.
At the beginning, he didn’t know who I was.
Later, as we were parting, we ran into many Chinese tourists.
That was when this person realised who I was.
When I turned around to say goodbye to him, he had quietly left.
This encounter has been on my mind ever since. So I want to ask the reporters in Singapore to reach out to him.
I heard from my colleague he is a taxi driver.
Please tell him this: Hey, buddy, I wish you the best of health, and happiness in your life.”......
https://mothership.sg/2018/08/wang-yi-si...xi-driver/