In a fairly wide ranging interview conducted with a Bloomberg reporter and published the on Journalism.sg, Singapore's Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew, has offered his advice for the Chinese government on dealing with foreign media. Much of it is pretty solid:

You take Tibet. Who started it? It was started by the Tibetans. The March incident, March 14. I was reading Jonathan Eyal who writes for our Straits Times. He was a commentator from London. He is from I think Chatham House, a very thoughtful man. He said if they had called in the newspapers right from the word go, and said, look, this is what happened. The Economist correspondent was in Lhasa when it happened and wrote about it. He was favorable to them. The rioters started killing people and they were not reacting. The orders were not to shoot, not to take on the rioters because they didn't want trouble. Had they engaged the west, all this would have turned out differently.

Why didn't they? Because there was a chasm between their mental make up and that of the west. So they say all western correspondents out, that means you have got something to hide. I think that was not very wise. Supposing it was Singapore, do we say all correspondents out? No. I say look come on, stay, watch it, see what happens, see who started what.

Are they [the Chinese] stupid? They can't do what we do? No. Its just people at the people at the top have not been educated in the west, they have not been exposed to that kind of environment, that kind of rules of the game, and are not playing by those rules of the game.

 On the other hand, he can't stop a little of the old reactionary sentiment from sneaking through:

So when you write an article with a little sting at the end, which is not true. I claim the right of reply. You have written 5,000 words, I claim 500 words. They refused, and in that case, I will restrict you. I will not block you because you will say I'm afraid of what you said. But I will restrict you and allow the other people, the other subscribers to photostat, fax, and now scan. So now you allow me the right of reply, I get the right of reply, the writer who puts in all these poison barbs no longer appears so smart. You can twist my arm, I'll wring your neck.

I'm not sure that all foreign media organizations feel that the PAP's application of its rights of reply and litigation are conducted on an entirely level playing field. Still, at least foreign newspapers and magazines can be printed and relatively freely distributed in Singapore (barring the occasional punitive restriction). In Imagethief's book, that counts for a lot.

Love him or hate him, the blunt-spoken Mr. Lee is seldom a dull interview. It's an interesting read. A complete transcript of the discussion is also available (pdf).