this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2025
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Well, Taiwan and Singapore are able to be competitive in the world market, despite being very small and lacking major resource advantages or big militaries. They do this by developing very sophisticated expertise and pressing the few very particular advantages they have.
There are exceptions of course, but they are often less about "finding a niche", and more about politics. Taiwan is an important client state of the US for geopolitical strategy. Such relationships can include more favorable trade deals. I don't know much about Singapore except that that it's all about the finance "industry". Seems like it's the place where Eastern and Western billionaires can make financial transactions with each other.
Taiwan absolutely found a niche. Its manufacturing capability is what makes it a strategic ally for the US.
Singapore’s niche is more like several niches from financial services to precision manufacturing and medical research. But it all runs on their skilled workforce. Not “politics.”
A niche will be based on whatever you have. If you have nothing but cheap labor, that’s not great, but it is something. To sell that labor to wealthy foreign corporations isn’t just getting dominated by them, it’s how China has raised millions out of poverty.
Being poor and undeveloped is a shitty hand to try to play, but that doesn’t change the game. Use what you have. Find what you’re best at.
I'm saying Taiwan was able to develop its niche due to its strategic (geographic) interest to the US, not the other way around. China has raised millions out of poverty via cheap labor, yes. However, the reason is that its size allows it to maintain ownership of the profits, which are reinvested in China.