Taiwanese presidential candidate Han Kuo-yu's wife, Lee Chia-fen, has cancelled a campaigning trip to Singapore, citing concerns from local authorities over the conduct of "foreign political activities" in the city-state.

MFA: Foreign political activities not permitted

Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterated in a statement released on Tuesday, Nov. 26, that activities such as "campaigning and fund raising" are not permitted in Singapore.

"We have consistently maintained the same policy for all parties," the statement read.

"We expect all residents and visitors to respect and abide by our laws."

Gather support from expatriates overseas

This is the third time Lee is representing her husband on such trips to gather support from Taiwanese expats for Han's campaign, according to United Daily News (UDN).

She had previously travelled to the Philippines and Vietnam in October, as well as Japan, Cambodia and Bangkok from Nov. 15.

DW News, citing Han's campaign office, said the Singaporean government "expressed its heightened concern" over foreign political activities in the country on Monday, Nov. 25.

She had then cancelled the Singapore leg of her trip as she had not wanted to "make things difficult" for the Taiwanese expats living in Singapore.

As a result of the cancellation of her Singapore trip, she has extended her stay in Malaysia by one more day, after visiting Indonesia on Monday, Nov. 25.

Lee to visit the U.S. next

Lee is due to visit several cities in the United States from Dec. 5 to 15, including Washington D.C., New York, Houston and Los Angeles, DW News reported.

Han, which represents the pro-Beijing Kuomintang party, is currently trailing behind in opinion polls as compared to the incumbent Tsai Ing-wen.

Taiwan's presidential election is due to take place on Jan. 11, 2020.

Refuted claims he took campaign funds from Beijing

Han has previously refuted claims made by former Chinese spy William Wang, who said the Chinese government has launched influence operations in Taiwan to interfere with its domestic elections in favour of Beijing-friendly candidates such as Han.

While Wang alleged that Han had received a sum of US$2.8 million (S$3,825,700) from Beijing for his campaign, the latter vehemently rejected the claim, saying he would immediately withdraw his presidential election bid should he had accepted even NT$1 (S$0.04) from China, Taiwan News reported.

Beijing allows Kuomintang to campaign in China

According to Reuters, the Chinese government has previously allowed the Kuomintang to conduct campaign activities among the Taiwanese business community in China in the hopes that they would vote for a party that is more inclined towards Beijing.

Cross-strait relations have taken a dip since Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, who belongs to the pro-independence party Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), took office in 2016.

Tsai has refused to acknowledge the “1992 Consensus”, which is a mutual agreement that there is only “one China”, although both sides interpret it differently.

Beijing views Taiwan as a wayward province that it will take back by force if necessary.

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