The Chinese Embassy statement is directed at the media, not at Singapore's government. That framing is deliberate: engaging the Singaporean state diplomatically would legitimize the attribution claim as a bilateral matter, whereas criticizing news outlets keeps the dispute at the level of contested reporting. Singapore's public sector communicators need to read that targeting precisely: the statement is calibrated to reduce the attribution's political weight without triggering a formal government-to-government exchange.
The Chinese Embassy statement is directed at the media, not at Singapore's government. That framing is deliberate: engaging the Singaporean state diplomatically would legitimize the attribution claim as a bilateral matter, whereas criticizing news outlets keeps the dispute at the level of contested reporting. Singapore's public sector communicators need to read that targeting precisely: the statement is calibrated to reduce the attribution's political weight without triggering a formal government-to-government exchange.