The Singapore success story can actually contribute to the Chinese. But not the way our friend Nihonjin thinks.
The success of Singapore build based on the Chinese threat model created by the Chinese and to some extend, Chinese communism themselves. For that is the motivation of the Singaporean rise.
During 1948-1990, there is a real chance on red scare will touch Singapore, especially with its predominant Chinese population (Russian is an minority in Singapore, if there are any) After the communist scare in Malay (In the form of Malaya Emergency) Singapore is basically the core faction to prevent their own country to fall in line with communist. Where by doing so, segregated the Chinese Singaporean and the rest of the population. It is this early scare have push the Singaporean into a more Western model which would allow free market development at the same time with restricted political belief.
Most Chinese in Singapore are not practice of Taoism nor Confucianism, rather most Chinese are Buddhist in religion, the country of Singapore top two religion is Buddhist (Nearly 40% of all Singaporean) and Christianity (Nearly 20% of all Singaporean).
However, after the communist fall, the next thing driving the Singapore development is the Chinese threat and what the world have done in order to contain it. While the Communist ideal is long gone, the Chinese have always been single-handedly credited with the current political structure of Singapore, which is western orientated. The west, particularly the US have taking a stride of interest in Singapore because of the Asia pivot, and thus invested heavily in Singapore political and economic sectors. Resulting a closer cooperation to US company and US government. The Singaporean themselves also feel threaten by the economic power Chinese process. And they were desperately trying to find a Counter Balance to the Chinese Market, in comes the American.
It's not hard to see where the Singaporean political preference lies. But in all, almost all of the Singapore Growth in the last 80 years or so were contributed heavily by the Chinese, mostly because of their threat to the region.
Here are some good article detailing how communism and Mainland Chinese (Not Singaporean Chinese) present as a threat to Singapore political and economical model.
The Communist Threat to Singapore
Singapore - The Communist Threat, 1945-63
SIA's China dominance under threat as Chinese carriers boost capacity - Yahoo Singapore Finance
Singapore’s chemical ambitions face Chinese threat | AJOT.COM