Her father-in-law, a migrant from Fujian province, had built a fortune in the 1950s as the sole agent for Chinese suiting fabrics in South-east Asia at a time when China’s centrally planned economy barred factories from exporting goods directly.
In 1985, spurred by the reform and opening-up drive ushered in by the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, the Singapore family set up a garment factory on Beijing’s outskirts.
Their Shunmei suits tapped into pent-up demand after the Cultural Revolution, when most Chinese had been confined to boxy blue and grey uniforms. Over the next decade, their suits sold like hot cakes.
For young men arriving in Beijing to start their careers, a Shunmei suit was a marker of respectability, worn during life’s biggest moments – from weddings to trips abroad. Many sought salary advances to afford one suit, desperate not to be dismissed as country bumpkins.
Customers raved about the imported wool: comfortable yet structured, unlike the floppy, scratchy local cloth.
The Asian cutting fit remarkably well, with sleeves ending neatly at the wrists instead of drowning the wearer, as European imports often did. Hidden pockets for pens and train tickets added practicality.
Japanese technicians kept the quality consistent, and Smart Garments, Ms Seet’s company, became the first clothing company in China to adopt the ISO 9001 quality management standard, setting an industry benchmark.
But by the mid-1990s, competition from local brands eroded its lead. By 2019, with e-commerce reshaping the retail landscape, her family sold the business.
“The retail environment had changed tremendously, especially since Jack Ma started the Alibaba e-commerce platform,” Ms Seet told The Straits Times.
An evolving economic partnership: Singapore businesses in China
The story of Smart Garments captures the broader arc of Singapore’s economic engagement with China: an early-mover advantage that later narrowed as Chinese firms moved up the value chain, requiring Singapore firms to rethink their strategy and reposition themselves to capture other opportunities.
The same pattern played out in other sectors, notably property.
During the heyday of Singapore’s property investment in China, two flagship government-to-government projects were launched: the Suzhou Industrial Park in 1994 and Tianjin Eco-City in 2008. Each attracted investments in areas from manufacturing to residential and commercial properties.
Singapore developers such as CapitaLand, Keppel Land and City Developments latched onto opportunities in the wider Chinese economy from the turn of the century, riding a private housing boom after China scrapped its welfare housing system in 1998 and as waves of migrant workers moved into cities.
For local governments hungry for revenue and new infrastructural projects to boost growth, foreign investors were welcome partners in fuelling a construction frenzy.
The boom was dizzying; the bust, just as spectacular.
By the late 2010s, runaway home prices had priced out much of China’s younger generation, stoking fears of social instability and deepening inequality in a country that championed “common prosperity”.
Meanwhile, Chinese property developers binged on debt, hoping that each new launch would cover the last loan.
The Chinese government put its foot down in 2020, imposing “three red lines” to curb developer borrowing and tighten bank credit.
Evergrande’s collapse in 2021 marked the end of China’s debt-fuelled housing boom.
Today, China’s home sales are at their lowest in two decades, and many Singapore developers have scaled back or exited the market.
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Doubling down on China
These setbacks raise a pertinent question: With China’s economy slowing and US tariffs looming, with more potentially targeting those with strong economic ties with China, is it still wise to do business in China?
Yes, say analysts.
Mr Chen Long, lead economist of consultancy firm Plenum, told ST: “With the volume of the Chinese market so huge, even slower growth can still bring profits.”
Indeed, new areas of cooperation are opening up.
Both governments have said that renewable energy, digital economy and logistics are among areas of future cooperation.
Singapore firms are finding niches that tap China’s scale while remaining globally competitive.
One example is H2MO, a water purification company co-founded by Mr Ong Tze Guan and Professor Wang Rong, who heads the Singapore Membrane Technology Centre at the Nanyang Technological University.
With a research centre in Jiangsu province and manufacturing on-site, it is able to access China’s vast supply chain, keeping costs low and products competitive across South-east Asia.
“China is still a huge consumer market,” Mr Ong said. “People may be holding back spending now, but if you can find a niche, the opportunities are still far bigger than back home in Singapore or Indonesia.”
A new phase
If the first few decades of Singapore’s economic engagement with China were about seizing opportunities inside China, the next phase may lie in the reverse – helping Chinese firms expand overseas into otherwise unfamiliar territory.
After decades of refining their production lines, Chinese companies are now efficient, low-cost and globally competitive.
Besides, Beijing’s “go out” strategy and Belt and Road Initiative aimed at easing industrial overcapacity are pushing them abroad, amid softening domestic demand, saturating markets and cut-throat domestic competition.
Here, Singapore firms have distinctive strengths.
Firms like Rajah & Tann, South-east Asia’s largest law firm, are positioning themselves as trusted partners for Chinese companies entering the region.
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Such partnerships unlock new business opportunities: to provide the legal, accounting, banking and other professional services Chinese firms need.
“The moment they step out of China and into a new market, they need to comply with local laws, such as on investment, labour and personal data. And the more business they do, the more likely they will face disputes. That’s where we come in,” said Mr Loh Yong Hui, who is chief representative of the firm’s Shenzhen office, its second in China after Shanghai.
Partnerships in renewable energy, a booming sector for China, show similar promise.
Shanxi Electric Power Engineering (Sepec), a subsidiary of state-owned Energy China, has worked with Singapore’s Sembcorp over the past six years on projects including the floating solar farm at Tengeh Reservoir, one of the world’s largest; an energy storage system on Jurong Island, South-east Asia’s biggest; and Singapore’s largest solar plant, also on Jurong Island.
“These projects had a huge demonstrative effect,” said Mr Han Ziyuan, Sepec’s Singapore chief representative.
“They not only showed what our company can deliver, but also how well-designed renewable energy policies can be implemented. Other South-east Asian countries watch Singapore closely. When they see good policies here, they often ‘copy and paste’ them at home.”
The Singapore experience has already helped Sepec secure contracts abroad, including for Indonesia’s largest solar farm in Nusantara, the new capital, and a 528MW solar plant in Oman, the largest in the country.
Mr Han is bullish about his company’s prospects in Singapore.
“Singapore is a great fit for us. You have demands for renewable energy and clearly spelt policies in Green Plan 2030; we have the expertise and experience to meet the demands. We are excited about the pipeline of future projects.”
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Some doors close, new ones open
In the 35 years since ties were established, China’s evolving economy has closed some doors to Singapore firms, but opened others. The challenge for Singapore businesses is to keep adapting and stay alert to fresh opportunities.
For Ms Seet, whose family rode China’s tumultuous shifts, and experienced both the early opportunities from reform and opening up, and the pitfalls and risks from eventually being edged out by e-commerce, the lesson is clear.
“When I look at the global situation today, I would still bet my money on investing in China,” said Ms Seet, the former president of the Singapore Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China.
She said she has no regrets.
“My family’s investment there yielded good returns, despite the many challenges we faced. After all, investing anywhere comes with its own hurdles.”
And that same clear-eyed view – that China remains too big to ignore, even if harder to navigate – continues to shape Singapore’s economic partnership with its largest trading partner, 35 years on.
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Yew Lun Tian is a senior foreign correspondent who covers China for The Straits Times.
