Abstract: Reconstructions of ocean temperatures are essential for accurate assessment of global temperature variability over the past 2000 years and future global warming. Using the TWNCY-4 core off northeastern Taiwan, we reconstructed the evolutionary sequence of regional surface seawater temperature (SST) during the late Holocene based on planktonic foraminiferal (Globigerinoides ruber) shell Mg/Ca ratios. In conjunction with the existing El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) records, we analyzed the evolutionary history of SST at the southwestern end of the Okinawa Trough over the past 2700 years, and its connection with tropical processes. Results show that the SST evolution in this region has exhibited a pattern of slow decline (2743~1080 aBP), rapid rise (1080~557 aBP), and then slow decline again (557 aBP to the present) during the late Holocene. Although the results of spectral analysis of SST show a typical centennial cycle, its evolutionary process is distinctly different from the typical centennial-scale warm and cold fluctuations in the Northern Hemisphere temperature and the surrounding oceanic SST records. The variation of SST is comparable to that of the SST records in the tropical western Pacific during the late Holocene. Comparison reveals that SST variations are consistent with the ENSO activity documented in numerous records during the Late Holocene. Especially, the SST anomalies since 1330 aBP closely match the changes in the frequency and intensity of El Niño events. Our analysis indicated that ENSO has driven the SST evolution at the southwestern end of the Okinawa Trough during the late Holocene by modulating the intensity of the Kuroshio, highlighting the crucial role of low-latitude processes in the transport of heat from the tropical western Pacific to mid- and high-latitudes.