Former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew died early Monday. He was 91 years old.
Mr. Lee was Singapore’s leader from 1959 until 1990. In recent years, he remained a highly influential person in the city-state, off the coast of Malaysia.
The president of the United States offered his sympathy to the Lee family. President Barack Obama described Lee Kuan Yew as a "visionary" who built "one of the most prosperous countries in the world today."
Chinese President Xi Jinping praised Mr. Lee as “an old friend of the Chinese people” who “was respected by the international community as a strategist（军事家） and a statesman.”
“Harry” Lee Kuan Yew was a fourth generation Singaporean. His ancestors moved there from China’s Guangdong Province in the 1860s.
Mr. Lee was a survivor of the Japanese occupation of Singapore during World War II. Afterthe war, he studied economics in London, and received a law degree from Cambridge University.
His political life began in 1954 with the formation of the People’s Action Party, also known as PAP. The group represented association of middle class parties and trade unionists. The PAP won elections in 1959, with Mr. Lee becoming Singapore’s first Prime Minister. He held the position until 1990, when he became a senior minister.
At the age of 42, Lee Kuan Yew became the leader of the city-state. He began working in support of Singapore’s most valuable resource – its people. Foreign investment followed. With economic growth of near 10 percent for many years, Singapore helped define （定义）economic development for “Asian Tigers” such as Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea.
Singapore became a center for transportation, oil refining and finance. It developed a world famous national airline. It also was the world’s busiest seaport until recently when Shanghai was recognized as the busiest.
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