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TAEF BRIEF
May 20, 2022
No. 89 |
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CONTENT
-TAEF Updates
-TAEF Commentaries
-New Southbound Policy News
-Regional Headlines |
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TAEF Event: 2022 Asia Disaster Prevention Forum |
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Date of Event: April 27, 2022
The “2022 Asia Disaster Prevention Forum - Public-Private Partnership and Regional Resilience Rebuilding under Climate Crisis” co-organized by the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation (TAEF), Taiwan Association of Disaster Prevention Industry (TADPI), and Messe Frankfurt Taiwan Branch closed successfully on April 27. The two-hour forum was filled with insights provided by speakers from home and abroad, who managed to bring their unique experiences and observations accumulated over time to the table, hoping to co-build a “resilient region” to address disaster risks.
Vice Premier Shen Jong-chin gave his speech on Taiwan’s ESG visions from an international perspective. He stressed that climate change and sustainable development “are not only the responsibility of the government and enterprises but also the responsibility of the people.”
Ambassador-at-Large Lin Chia-Lung emphasized that the digital New Southbound initiatives under the Indo-Pacific strategy aim to identify the business models that work for all countries in the region in smart manufacturing, smart transportation, smart medical care, and smart urban and rural areas. As countries work on customizing these models to fit the needs of different countries, values are added, and each country can “co-create” and “co-improve” with the local industries.
Check out the excerpts from all other speakers on our Facebook.
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Call for Proposals: Local Gatherings at the 2022 International Conference “From Connection to Collaboration” |
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Date of Event: October 20 - October 29, 2022
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CNN-News 18
The Indian Community in Taiwan is Small but Strong, Time New Delhi Appreciates It |
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May 14, 2022
-Dr. Sana Hashmi, Visiting Fellow, Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation
As one of the sought-after destinations of Indians abroad, Taiwan is carving out a niche for itself. Even though Indian migration to Taiwan is limited and relatively recent compared to the Caribbeans and Southeast Asia, it is beginning to make a mark in terms of the contribution the Indian community is making in some critical sectors.
Taiwan is home to at least 5,000 Indian citizens and some members of the diasporic community. The Indian community in Taiwan consists of businesspersons, restaurateurs, academicians, engineers, artists, students, and think-tankers. Most Indians in Taiwan hold white-collar jobs and are considered among the highly educated in the expatriate community. Considered a closed-knit affluent society, Indians have made significant strides in Taiwan.
As far as the evolution of the Indian community in Taiwan is concerned, Indians moved to Taiwan in five waves.
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The Prospect Foundation
The Belated US-ASEAN Summit: Inheritance and Advancement of Relations |
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May 12, 2022
-Dr. Alan H. Yang, Executive Director, Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation
The US-ASEAN Summit, initially scheduled for late March this year, is finally set to kick off in Washington, DC, on May 12 and 13. This year’s summit has two things in all eyes: the “inheritance” and “advancement” of the US-ASEAN relations.
In terms of “inheritance”, the Biden administration will likely inherit the US-ASEAN cooperative frameworks previously initiated by former President Obama, who came from the same Democratic background. One could also expect more administrative, legislative, and bi-partisan support brought by President Joe Biden, a keener advocate of internationalism and multilateral cooperation than ex-President Donald Trump, to ASEAN.
Meanwhile, in its “advancement” agenda, the US will surely want to secure the commitment of the ASEAN countries towards sanctioning Russia – or at least have Russia’s friends (such as Vietnam and Myanmar) or those who are conservative denouncing Russia (such as Thailand and Indonesia) to reconsider their stances. This will put considerable pressure on the ASEAN communities and countries.
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Taipei Times
Four Cs can Bolster Ties with India |
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April 29, 2022
-Dr. Sana Hashmi, Visiting Fellow, Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation
A universally accepted notion about international relations and world history is: “There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen.”
This holds true of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thanks to the belligerent postures of the two revisionist powers — China and Russia — the pace of regional and global strategic dynamics has been exacerbated, leaving many in the region to catch up with changing realities.
India and Taiwan are two such partners. Cognizant of the mutual gains their bilateral relations might accrue, New Delhi and Taipei are engaging each other at a fast pace while abandoning their “status quo” approach. A long-term strategy to push relations forward in a more systematic and meaningful way is in order. One of the enabling steps is already in place—India's Act East Policy, with its three Cs: commerce, culture, and connectivity. One could add a fourth “C”—cyberspace.
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CNN-News18
Why India Must Engage Taiwan Even If It Ruffles a Few Chinese Feathers |
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April 27, 2022
-Dr. Sana Hashmi, Visiting Fellow, Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation
The Russia-Ukraine conflict has posed uncertainties about the future of the liberal international order. One of the immediate consequences of the Ukraine crisis has been a flurry of speculations about China’s territorial (mis)adventures vis-a-vis its neighbours, notably in relation to Taiwan.
Despite the fact that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan is not imminent, Taiwan sees the Ukraine situation as a lesson in how to deal with China’s military adventurism. Other countries have also raised similar concerns. For instance, Japan has been expressing its worries over a possible Chinese incursion into the Taiwanese territory. This was explicitly mentioned in the Japanese White Paper published earlier this year.
India has kept a low profile with Taiwan due to a protracted border issue and repeated standoffs with China. There has been a popular perception that any move to engage Taiwan will elicit a furious retaliation from China. After Galwan clashes, preceded by decades of deception by China and its attempts to forestall India’s growth, it would be timely for India to stop paying attention to China at the cost of engaging Taiwan.
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NEW SOUTHBOUND POLICY NEWS |
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Radio Taiwan International
Taiwan Pushes to Link New Southbound Policy with Quad Security Dialogue
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May 16, 2022
Taiwan launched its New Southbound Policy in 2016 with the goal of making the country less dependent on China. The policy aims to build closer ties with Taiwan’s neighbors to the east and south. That includes India and Pakistan, as well the Philippines and Australia, among others.
But Deputy Foreign Minister Tien Chung-kwang said things have changed since Taiwan established the policy. He said Taiwan needs to adjust its strategy following the US-China trade war, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and United States’ pivot towards the Indo-Pacific.
That’s why Tien said Taiwan will push to integrate its New Southbound Policy with work done by the Quad, a security dialogue including the US, Japan, India, and Australia.
Read more
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Taipei Times
Creating a Global Service Industry
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May 12, 2022
Acer founder Stan Shih has time and again called on Taiwan to promote the internationalization of its service industry, believing that a thousand-fold more opportunities lie in the international market, as the service industry occupies a major role in the industrial structure of countries around the world and offers more value-added opportunities.
However, Shih has also said that internationalizing the service industry is 100 times harder than promoting export manufacturing, not only because service innovation is more difficult, but also because it requires more resources. This is what Taiwan needs to constantly review when promoting its digital New Southbound Policy.
Taiwan’s digital and software technology is catching up with hardware development. With machine vision, for example, optical technology would have been the focus under the previous approach when hardware development took precedence, but now with back-end artificial-intelligence machine learning, tasks can still be performed without having to frequently upgrade the hardware, enhancing cost competitiveness and creating added value for customers.
As such, there are three keys to promoting the digital New Southbound Policy, based on the idea of internationalizing the service industry:
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The Diplomat
What the 2022 Diplomatic Blue Book Reveals About Japan’s Taiwan Policy
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May 4, 2022
In the newly published “2022 Diplomatic Bluebook” from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, the Taiwan Strait was mentioned five times, a record high. It’s especially notable given the term’s total absence in previous editions from 2017 to 2021.
One mention interestingly comes under the Japan-ASEAN section, which highlights that Prime Minister Kishida Fumio emphasized “the importance of the peace and stability in the Taiwan strait” at the 16th East Asia Summit (EAS) while expressing strong opposition to any economic coercion. At the same time, Kishida also emphasized that a Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea – currently under negotiations between China and ASEAN – should be in accordance with the United Nations Convention on Maritime Law. That Taiwan was included alongside the South China Sea among Japan’s concerns in Southeast Asia is remarkable.
There is little question that Japan has stepped up its level of support toward Taiwan and has been more vocal in showing support for Taiwan by stressing the importance of stability in the Taiwan strait. And it is not hard to understand why Japan has expressed increasing concerns over the security of Taiwan given the close geographical proximity.
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Taipei Times
New Small Parties Seek National Reach
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May 1, 2022
The rights of homemakers and immigrants are among the top priorities for two small political parties, one of which on Friday named its candidates for November’s local elections.
The Taiwan Obasang Political Equality Party — which takes its name from the Japanese word obasan, a term of endearment for an aunt or older woman, in common use in Taiwan — named 15 candidates, while a party for “new residents and immigrants” was launched in Chiayi City yesterday, although it has yet to decide whether it would put up candidates in the Nov. 26 elections.
The party’s Chinese name (台灣新住民黨) means “new residents of Taiwan,” referring to people who immigrated within the past two decades. The party said it is focused on promoting social harmony, economic prosperity, multicultural identity and “clean politics.”
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The Diplomat
Assessing the Outcomes of the US-ASEAN Special Summit
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May 17, 2022
Late last week, U.S. President Joe Biden hosted representatives from nine Southeast Asian nations as well as the secretary-general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for a two-day special summit in Washington, D.C.
In a 28-point joint “vision statement” released after the summit, the two sides committed to raising their relationship from a strategic partnership to a “comprehensive strategic partnership” in November.
Biden also announced that his administration would provide $150 million to ASEAN to address issues related to infrastructure, security, pandemic preparedness, and clean energy. Other U.S. commitments included the future deployment of a Coast Guard vessel to the region to help bolster the region’s maritime security.
While the summit hit all the right symbolic notes, it replicated a lot of the problems with the recent U.S. approach to the region, which one recent article described aptly as “rhetorically ambitious but substantively vague.”
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The Economist
Sri Lanka has No Money and No Government. What Now?
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May 14, 2022
For more than a month the anti-government protesters camped along Galle Face, the seafront in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo, had been mostly peaceful. They were demanding the departure of the president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and the prime minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa, his brother.
All that changed on May 9th when hundreds of government supporters descended on the camp at Galle Face and other protest sites in the city. Unmolested by police, they attacked the demonstrators and burnt down their tents. Many had come straight from a meeting at the residence of the prime minister, who had hosted them in a bid to cling to his job. As violence began to spiral out of control, the prime minister at last heeded calls to resign, in the process triggering the dissolution of his cabinet.
In theory, that should pave the way for a new government of national unity led by a prime minister who enjoys cross-party support, and made up of representatives of all the main parties and perhaps some technocrats. But unity is the last thing on the minds of many Sri Lankans, who are enraged to find themselves demoted from relatively well-off by South Asian standards to begging for handouts from India.
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Nikkei Asia
For Bongbong, Economic Growth Key to Restoring Marcos Family Honor
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May 12, 2022
The Philippines has elected as its next president Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., whose namesake father ruled the country as a dictator for two decades before being driven out in the People Power revolution of 1986.
Marcos did not participate in a single debate and has talked only in bits and pieces about his core policies.
Why, then, did he win so decisively?
"Despite being the son of an authoritarian ruler he's mild-mannered, and his message about his family's misfortunes resonated with people," said Takeshi Kawanaka, chief senior researcher for the Area Studies Center at the Japan External Trade Organization's Institute of Developing Economies.
"His image as a leader isn't clear-cut," said Kawanaka, who argued that his overwhelming voter support comes down to "popularity, not logic."
But the fact that Marcos was clearly chosen by the people -- in contrast to the violence, threats, and wrongdoing of his father's era -- should not be ignored.
Whether he can dispel the negative image of the Marcos name will depend not on the distortion of the past, but on his ability to forge a future for the country.
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