Teaching Chinese Senior Public Officials in Singapore

Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is one of the most important overseas educational institutions that provides professional public administration training for senior Chinese public officials. Since 2012, the landscape of overseas professional public administration training has been drastically changed by the new administration of Chinese President Xi Jinping. It is therefore an opportune moment to reflect on NTU’s experience and prepare for the new changes. In this article, the authors share insights from their teaching experience, personal observations and interviews at NTU in the past decade since the Executive Master of Public Administration (EMPA) programme was first introduced, and discuss the challenges encountered in teaching Chinese senior public officials. This article also examines the development of professional public administration training in China, and makes recommendations for future research.