On the afternoon of May 11, 2006, Vice Premier Hui Liangyu of the State Council met with visiting Singaporean Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew in Diaoyutai State Guesthouse.

On behalf of the Chinese government, Hui welcomed Lee's visit to China and highly appreciated his important contributions to strengthened bilateral friendly cooperation for a long period of time. Hui said that bilateral relations have been developing soundly with close high-level exchanges and an increasing of mutual understanding and trust between both sides. Among the ASEAN countries, Singapore is China's largest trading partner, as well as the nation investing the most in China. Both countries have also maintained sound coordination and cooperation in strengthening China-ASEAN relations and promoting regional cooperation.

Hui noted that the Chinese government has always attached great importance to friendly cooperative relations with Singapore and would like to continue to actively advance bilateral exchanges and cooperation in all areas in the spirit of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefits. Hui appreciated the position of the Singaporean government to adhere to the one-China policy and oppose "Taiwan independence".

Lee made positive comments on the development of bilateral relations in recent years and highly appreciated China's development achievements. He indicated that despite some difficulties and challenges faced by China in the development process, Singapore believes that China will surely succeed and would like to keep closer cooperation with China to push for continuous progress of bilateral relations and realize common prosperity of the two countries.

Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei and other officials attended the meeting.