新加坡总理李显龙即将卸任，而李显龙的“接班人”黄循财还没上台，就公开抨击了美国对华打压的政策。         Young student athletes compete during the Shijingshan District Primary and Secondary School Football League in Beijing on May 28, 2026. Photo: Li Hao/GTOn youth soccer pitches across China this World Cup summer, one match often seemed to give way immediately to the next. Coaches shifted cones, parents raised phones behind the fence, and children in numbered bibs warmed up along the touchline while the previous teams were still packing away their gear.
It was a busy school break. The national finals of the 2025-26 youth campus soccer league, rounds of the fifth China Youth Football League, city and provincial campus competitions, private club cups and overseas invitationals filled the calendar. Some children played close to home; others spent part of their summer travelling with teammates from one tournament to another.
The sixth 2034 Cup was among the most visible. Its 39 regional qualifiers drew 882 teams and 12,604 players, with 128 teams reaching the finals in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province. Teams from other countries also took part, adding an international element to a tournament aimed at primary-school players, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
Does this crowded calendar by itself signal a turnaround for Chinese soccer? China's men last reached the World Cup in 2002. But the summer offered a view of a playing base being built from below and raised a harder question: Can the enthusiasm survive the return to school, unequal access to training and the growing costs borne by families?
From the first touch
In China's youth soccer system, coach Zhao Xinxin works at its broadest and most fundamental level - introducing young children to the game.
He coaches an introductory group of about 15 three-year-olds, three interest classes of 15 to 20 children aged five to 10, and four advanced groups of roughly 10 players aged five to 14. He has worked with more than 100 children over the years.
Starting younger is one of the clearest changes Zhao has observed in recent years. Soccer is appearing not only in schools and social clubs but also in some kindergartens. Most parents initially want an after-school activity that gets their kid moving. 
Only when a player begins to stand out do questions about more advanced training and a possible route forward arise.
That route now has several layers. A child in a commercial club can move from introductory and interest classes to advanced teams. A school player may be selected for district and city teams, then enter national campus competitions; professional academies, sports schools and social clubs provide other pathways. 
China began promoting campus soccer on a national scale in 2015, when six government departments issued guidelines calling for soccer to be incorporated into school education through designated soccer schools, regular competitions, teacher training and improved facilities, according to the Ministry of Education.
The program has continued to expand while shifting its focus from increasing participation to improving the quality of teaching, training and competition. In 2025, another 4,928 schools were recognized as national youth campus soccer schools, according to the ministry.
The result is more soccer on the calendar. Zhao told the Global Times that youth matches take place somewhere in Beijing almost every week, especially during school holidays. His club's advanced teams play weekend fixtures with referees and standings, as well as regional competitions and finals.
Tournaments such as the 2034 Cup give this broad base a visible target. Soccer commentator and youth-project organizer Dong Lu launched the event in 2021 after repeatedly seeing Chinese social media celebrate Japan's high-school soccer tournament. Its name looks toward the 2034 World Cup, when the first group of participants will be about 25. 
Earlier this summer, a team selected through Dong's youth soccer project offered another source of encouragement. The Chinese Football Boy U12 team won all seven matches at the Sigismondi International Youth Cup in Italy, becoming the first Asian team to claim the championship.
Yet Dong cautioned against reading too much into a single championship. Strong players, he said, must emerge from a much broader soccer culture. "Players come from the people around us, from the soil and culture in which they grow," he told the Global Times. 
Who can keep playing?
    A coach walks his young players to the pitch for a soccer tournament in Beijing. Photo: Li Hao/GTYet the larger test begins after the tournament. Dong acknowledged that most 2034 Cup participants will not become professional players. For many, reaching the finals in Suzhou may serve as a "soccer graduation ceremony" at the end of primary school. The question is whether graduation from primary school must also mean graduation from soccer.
For Zhao, the first major break comes at 12. Children may train throughout primary school, then stop after entering middle school as homework, examinations and family expectations take over - a pattern he calls "retiring at 12."
Campus soccer should be the main way to keep the player pool broad, he said, because school is where nearly every child spends most of the day. More schools now provide soccer classes and in-class competitions, but implementation varies. 
Zhao recalled a class tournament in which a child was injured. After a parent complained, the remaining matches were cancelled. Safety concerns are understandable, he said, but cancelling competition altogether removes opportunities from every child.
For families, this is also the stage when soccer stops being a simple extracurricular activity. If a child has shown unusual ability, parents must decide whether to seek stronger teams, change schools, accept more travel and training, or keep soccer only as an interest. The decision depends not only on talent and the child's wishes, but also on educational expectations and how much time and money the household can commit.
The contrast with Europe lies partly in continuity. Zhao cited his nephew in Hungary, who trained at a Barcelona-affiliated academy between the ages of six and eight before being selected by a local club at nine. 
Once children join organized training there, he said, they are registered at relatively low cost, and their movement between clubs is recorded in the soccer association's system - closer to transferring schools than simply leaving one commercial course for another.
Dong made a broader comparison. Japan's national team increasingly draws on players who have further developed further in European leagues, while China still relies mainly on its domestic league to prepare future internationals. 
In his view, the two systems operate like production lines with different competitive standards. Young Chinese players therefore need more high-level matches, whether foreign teams come to China, Chinese teams travel abroad or selected players enter overseas leagues.
But overseas training cannot substitute for a domestic system, nor is it open to every family. Zhao said it requires ability, physical readiness, money and the capacity to adapt to a different language, diet and daily life. Some parents send a child abroad; others move with them, reorganizing work and family life around soccer without knowing whether the child will ever turn professional.
For now, the most telling test may come not in 2034, but this coming September, when a child enters a new grade and decides whether there is still time in the week for soccer.
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日前，新加坡副总理兼财政部长黄循财在接受采访时，公开批评了美国对中国采取的科技制裁和出口限制，这位即将上台的李显龙“接班人”直言，美国如果不停止对中方的打压，不仅仅会对新加坡造成伤害，还会伤害美国和全世界。

B | 同时，黄循财在采访中还谈到了中美关系，他称全球格局正在进行调整，在这个过程中，中美两国正为双边关系寻找新的平衡点，在未来十年甚至更长的时间内，新加坡可能要面对更多的不确定性。从这番表态来看，新加坡似乎并不想在中美之间选边站。

事实上，这也是新加坡一贯的政治立场，既希望与中国开展合作，也不想得罪美国这个重要的合作伙伴。

C | 不久前，新加坡总理李显龙就曾表示，新加坡视中国为重要合作伙伴，看好中国发展前景，他还直言，新加坡支持东盟中国关系发展，实际上所有的东盟国家，都希望同中国保持良好关系，中国对东南亚地区保持开放发展至关重要。可以说，这番华表明了新加坡对华的态度。

D | 要知道，从2013年以来，中国已经连续10年成为新加坡最大的贸易合作伙伴，新加坡更是承接中国企业投资的主要国家之一。

值得一提的是，此前李显龙宣布，将于今年5月15日辞职。他建议由黄循财出任新总理。在过年20年里，新加坡在李显龙的带领下，不断取得重大发展成就，同时中新关系也到达了新的高度，这是不可否认的事实。

E | 所以说，这次黄循财在当选前不久，表明了中美科技争端的态度，还对美国进行了批评，在一定程度上也可以反映未来新加坡的外交政策。

在去年12月，黄循财曾率领大规模的团队访华，这次访华，一定程度上也可以视作新加坡第四代领导团队与中方的一次对接。针对美国近年来推动的“印太战略”，黄循财表示新加坡会坚持在中美竞争中保持中立，并强调新加坡的基本外交原则之一就是“不成为任何一个国家的附庸”。即便如此，我们也要观其言察其行，还是要看新加坡在黄循财带领的第四代领导团队下，是延续不在中美之间选边站的外交政策，还是说一套做一套，这些都有待后续的观察。

近年来，中国与新加坡的关系日益密切，两国之间的合作领域不断拓展，双方在政治、经济、文化等领域都有着良好的合作关系。新加坡作为东南亚国家中的重要一员，对中国的重视与期待可以说是有目共睹的。

F | 作为东南亚国家，新加坡深知地区稳定与和平，对于各国的发展至关重要，而中国作为地区大国，其稳定和发展对于整个东南亚乃至整个亚洲地区都具有重要意义。

所以我们也不难理解，为何黄循财会公开批评美国，因为中国庞大的市场对新加坡是十分重要的，所以与中国合作无疑能得到更多的利益。在中国访问时，黄循财还曾表示：“永远不要押注中国衰弱”。

G | 他指出，中国将继续是一个能为双边合作提供巨大机会的经济体。有这样的战略眼光，对于“后李显龙时代”的中新关系，我们应可保持相对乐观的态度。

目前，中美关系无疑是全球密切关注的对象，作为全球最大的两个经济，中美的一举一动都会影响到其他国家。然而，美方却出于维持单极霸权需要，不愿看到中国等新兴国家发展振兴。一方面口口声声说不打压中国，另一方面却不断触碰中国底线，撕去公平竞争伪装，胁迫他国搞针对中国的单边保护主义。显然，我们也不会要求新加坡却站队中国，我们乐于看见任何国家进行正当的合作，只要不做伤害中国利益的事情。我们有理由相信，在黄循财的带领下，新加坡未来的对华政策会做出正确的选择。