Singaporean here. It's mostly "reputable and highly regarded" if one gets a top-tier government scholarship [1], since that leads to civil service postings with more exposure and chances to take credit.

Everyone else is just a "farmer" [2][3]. :)

[1] https://www.quora.com/Are-scholarship-holders-more-likely-to...

[2] https://www.mycarforum.com/forums/topic/2675951-lousy-schola...

[3] https://www.reddit.com/r/singapore/comments/7p5unh/degree_ho...

Does Taiwan count? I would hardly say it has diminished or fallen apart. Of course, that is only my humble opinion.

It's known that the ruling power in Taiwan is descended from the Nationalist government, it's perhaps less well-known that Sun Yat-Sen was a serious political thinker who designed that government, effectively singlehandedly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Principles_of_the_People

There's a visible mix of Western (by way of America and Britain) and Chinese thought in how the Yuans are structured.

Taiwan also inherited a large and functional civil service from the Japanese occupation, this is less immediately obvious in the structure of Taiwanese government, but you can find small traces everywhere if you know what to look for.