Browsing: editorial

This “deliberate absence” was no accident. Rather, it reflects a consistent policy choice by Singapore. For a country with an ethnic Chinese majority but a deeply diverse society, Singapore has always drawn a strict line between personal ties of blood and culture, and national political loyalty and policy orientation. Political leaders’ distance from their ancestral hometowns is an important symbol: internally, it strengthens national cohesion; externally, it demonstrates independence.

As one Taiwanese voter told the Christian Science Monitor from a bus stop in Hualien, “Taiwan is a democratic, autonomous country. Going there is tantamount to bowing down and submitting”. A retired businessman in Taipei Ningxia Night market was blunter: “It’s like she’s Xi Jinping’s daughter”. 

At the center of the relocation ideas is a broader planning question: Should Kaohsiung continue operating under its current dual-administrative-center structure following the 2010 county-city merger, or use future infrastructure projects to create a more unified administrative hub?

An Indonesia that maintains balanced relations across major powers reduces the likelihood of Southeast Asia becoming exclusively dominated by China’s strategic orbit, an outcome Taiwan views as essential to preserving regional equilibrium.

Taiwanese travel to Singapore has also grown steadily, with a total of 91,190 visitors recorded in January and February, up 14.5%. Notably, in February alone, the number of Taiwanese visitors to Singapore surged to 55,120, representing a sharp 64.6% increase and indicating a clear acceleration.

TUNG Chen-Yuan, PhD, Taiwan’s Representative to Singapore According to projections by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS), Japan’s semiconductor market…

The critical battleground for scam prevention is money flow. Singapore has adopted robotic process automation (RPA) to drive the “Automation of Scam-fighting Tactics & Reaching Out” initiative, building real-time coordination between police and banks and replacing the previously passive sequence of “report first, freeze later.”

Last year, Taiwan became Singapore’s largest trading partner and source of imports for the first time. Approximately 85% of Taiwan’s exports to Singapore were semiconductor-related products, while about 80% of Singapore’s exports to Taiwan fell into the same category. In the first two months of 2025, Taiwan’s exports to Singapore grew by 56%, while Singapore’s semiconductor industry expanded by nearly 52%, demonstrating strong industrial linkage and mutual prosperity.

The methods used were startlingly brazen: the group utilized shell companies in Southeast Asia, forged trade documents, and even employed physical decoys—using “dummy servers” and hair dryers to swap serial numbers—to bypass U.S. export controls and funnel high-end NVIDIA AI chips into the Chinese market.

Singapore has become an increasingly important source of Taiwan’s overall trade surplus. In 2022, Taiwan’s surplus with Singapore accounted for more than 33% of Taiwan’s total trade surplus, and it remained close to 30% in 2024. Although the share was 17.5% in 2025, it rose again to 21.9% in January–February 2026, meaning that more than one-fifth of Taiwan’s total trade surplus now comes from Singapore.