It is not S'pore's intention to emulate what the US is, at least, politically.

S'pore's survival depends on the traffic flowing through 馬六甲海峽. 美國利用新加坡扼守馬六甲海峽的出口，占據一夫當關 and that makes S'pore stand out from its neighbors in the ASEAN. 新加坡主要靠港口、轉口貿易（包括貨物中轉和相應的金融服務）和石化工業（船舶油料補給）賺錢。如果80%以上的船舶不再停靠新加坡，新加坡的港口勢必門可羅雀，新加坡的經濟也會遭到毀滅性打擊. This is why S'pore has been clinging to its papa, the US, since this is the ONLY way it could survive especially when it is surrounded by muslim nations such as Malaysia and Indonesia.

S'pore also knows well what US did to Libya and to Iraq. If it does not sing along, US would do the same to her in the name of US interests. No ASEAN country knows more about how barbarica and ruthless US is than S'pore. This is one of the reasons why S'pore allows itself to serve as an US base, and gives US the right to use half of its ports and airports without first getting a green light from S'pore administration.

China never wants to get into the same shoes S'pore has. It sees through the whole bag of US exploitation tricks. While avoiding a direct confrontration with US for the time being, it aligns itself to an angle that can provide the best leverage. This include exposing all US ill intentions, and pushing US into a position to straddle on conflicting stands of values to further illustrate to the world of its fallacies, eccentricity, idiosyncrasies and aggressions.