<p><pre><code>    &gt; what it is that Singapore,
    &gt; Hong Kong, and Taiwan have
    &gt; in common ... exclude, say,
    &gt; Belgium or Denmark
</code></pre>
To clarify, you&#x27;re seriously asking why I left Belgium and Denmark out of a list of small and rich Asian countries?<p>Update: but ya know, even if it wasn&#x27;t about continent(!) the main difference is that Belgium and Denmark sit in the middle of large areas with border-free travel, largely homogenous policing, largely homogenous drug laws and share the same Supreme Court with their neighbours. Seeing them as micro-states, rather than constituent states of the EU for this purpose surely misses the point.