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TAEF BRIEF
December 23, 2022
No. 101 |
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CONTENT
-TAEF Updates
-TAEF Commentaries
-New Southbound Policy News
-Regional Headlines |
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TAEF Organizes the Public Affairs Forum on the New Southbound Policy |
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December 14, 2022
As the year is approaching its end, it is an ideal time to reflect on our year-long journey and plan for the future. In this regard, TAEF organized a Public Affairs Forum on December 14th, gathering TAEF key partners, NGO leaders, and media professionals to discuss the journey and prospects of the New Southbound Policy (NSP).
In his opening remarks, Chairman Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao of TAEF reiterated that the NSP “is at the center of Taiwan’s Indo-Pacific strategy” as remarked by President Tsai at this year’s Yushan Forum. He said that Taiwan's achievements in economy and trade interactions with the NSP countries have been gaining attention, as well as the country's soft power. However, he added, that the next step forward is to promote Taiwan's warm power--the NSP's dominant feature that prioritizes showing "kindness" when engaging with other countries--on top of expanding international outreach with Taiwan's hard and soft power. To do so, he called for the media to bring the stories of Taiwan and the NSP to the world.
Dr. Alan H. Yang, the Executive Director of TAEF, then gave a briefing on the outcomes of the NSP and TAEF. In particular, he provided a concrete picture of how the NSP is a multipronged outreach approach through five action programs of TAEF, namely regional resilience bulding, think tank collaboration, young leaders development, cultural and artistic exchange, and civil society connectivity. He concluded the briefing by calling for reinforcement in three aspects: regional connection, public-private-people partnerships, and implementation of post-pandemic revitalization.
Dr. Sana Hashmi, Postdoctoral Fellow of TAEF, delivered a keynote speech on "Unconventional Avenues of Exchange between Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific Region" with a focus on the NSP. In her speech, she emphasized that Taiwan is beyond the China factor and the country can provide much more to the NSP and like-minded countries and the Indo-Pacific as a whole with the NSP serving as the bridge.
More highlights of the forum will be featured on TAEF's website, social media and TAEF Brief forthcomingly.
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The Image of Taiwan and Taiwanese Businesses in Singapore: Survey by TAEF |
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December 9, 2022
Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation (TAEF) unveiled today the findings of the Survey on the Image of Taiwan and Taiwanese Businesses in Singapore. According to this survey of 100 Singaporean entrepreneurs, Taiwan and Taiwanese businesses are perceived positively overall. In addition, Singaporean entrepreneurs encourage more synergy between Taiwan and Singapore in tourism, semiconductors, and smart electronics.
However, they also felt that Taiwanese firms could invest more in internationalizing their businesses, improving the treatment of their employees, and implementing corporate social responsibility guidelines. In the meantime, Singaporean entrepreneurs called for closer cooperation between Taiwan and Singapore in light of global supply chain restructuring and geopolitical dynamics. In particular, they suggested Taiwan can leverage its advantages in “research and development (R&D)” and “high-end manufacturing” in the joint effort to promote high-end talent exchange, develop and strengthen supply chain resilience, and maintain regional safety and stability.
The media conference was opened by Chairman Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao of TAEF, Representative Francis Kuo-Hsin Liang of the Taipei Representative Office in Singapore (via videoconference), and Trade Representative Yip Wei Kiat of the Singapore Trade Office in Taipei.
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Meeting After the War and the Pandemic: TAEF Co-hosts A Dialogue between the Turkey Taiwan Center and NGOs in Taiwan |
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December 8, 2022
On December 8, TAEF co-hosted a forum with Taiwan AID for a dialogue between the Turkey Taiwan Center and NGOs in Taiwan. Chairman Michael Hsin-Huang Hsiao, the forum’s moderator, invited the Turkey Taiwan Center’s Executive Director, Dr. Chen-yu Chiu, to talk about the long journey he has undertaken to establish the Turkey Taiwan Center for refugees at Reyhanli, Turkey, and his future plans for the Center. Representatives of influential NGOs in Taiwan were also invited to the forum to share their wealth of experience over years in delivering humanitarian aid in South and Southeast Asia and running the NGOs. They were Chair Rebecca King-Ying Wang from Taiwan AID, Director Jay Hung from Zhi-Shan Foundation Taiwan, Director Hsiao-Ling Kao from Changhua Christian Hospital, and Ms. Wen-yu Tseng, the project manager from Eden Social Welfare Foundation.
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This Week's New Release: 2022 Yushan Forum Highlights |
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Focus Taiwan
Taiwan Urged to Diversify Southbound Policy Target Nation Strategies |
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December 14, 2022
-Dr. Sana Hashmi, Postdoctoral Fellow, Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation
Focus Taiwan reported on Dr. Sana Hashmi’s comments at a TAEF event about the accomplishments and path forward of the Taiwanese government’s New Southbound Policy. Dr. Sana Hashmi called for the Taiwanese government to take different approaches for each of the 18 target nations, explaining that each country has different interests and thus requires different policies.
In explaining the NSP’s achievements and weaknesses, Dr. Hashmi pointed out that the NSP is “a people centric policy” and that the government could do more to strengthen people-to-people ties with NSP partner countries. She suggested tourism and education were two fields with room for expanding cooperation, as well as migrant worker policy.
Dr. Hashmi raised the example of India, which has recently grown its connections relations with Taiwan. She explained how Indian students coming to Taiwan instead of China due to Covid have been able to better understand Taiwan’s position. She also pointed to a recent statement by the foreign ministry on Chinese-Taiwanese relations, indicating the Indian government’s recognition that there are mutual concerns with Taiwan about China’s aggressive foreign policy stance in recent years.
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The National Interest
An India-China Reset Is a Long Way Off |
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December 12, 2022
-Dr. Sana Hashmi, Postdoctoral Fellow, Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation
In an article for the National Interest, Dr. Sana Hashmi has argued that Xi Jinping has recently been reaching out to other countries in an apparent attempt at normalizing relations but India has not received the same treatment, thus making it clear that India would have to take the lead on resetting Indian-Chinese relations. Dr. Hashmi argues India has acknowledged China’s lack of intention to diffuse tensions and recognized China as a threat to its national security.
India has attempted outreach to China in various forums and has tried to maintain stable ties with China, hoping to resolve the long-standing border issue. However, as Dr. Hashmi argues, the Indian government ultimately took a hard-line on in response to the Galwan Valley clash, and thus any attempt to reconcile with China could be unpopular at home.
At the same time, Dr. Hashmi suggests that China has taken a combative approach with India and is unwilling to make concessions. Dr. Hashmi argues that China sees India as a part of the US’s containment strategy for China and wants to keep India contained rather than achieving a strong regional position that could help it counterbalance China.
Dr. Hashmi calls on China to stop trying to contain India if it wants to improve relations, and suggests that normalization is only possible if China accommodates India’s interests - which, at the moment, seems highly unlikely.
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Taipei Times
India Should Speak Out for Taiwan |
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December 6, 2022
-Dr. Sana Hashmi, Postdoctoral Fellow, Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation
In an article for the Taipei Times, Dr. Sana Hashmi explained that Indian-Taiwan relations have had a marked improvement in recent years as India has increasingly engaged with Taiwan. She pointed out that “economic and people-to-people exchanges” between the two countries have resumed with the subsiding of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As India’s relations with China have worsened recently, it has recognized the possibilities of relations with Taiwan in the economic, tech and culture sectors. There is room for mutual benefit, as India could establish itself as a supply chain hub and a destination for Taiwanese investment. But Dr. Hashmi suggests there is need for India to be more open and transparent.
Dr. Hashmi argues that Taiwan has become vital geopolitically for its role as the “antithesis” to China’s authoritarianism and for its strategic importance in US-China relations. Seeing China’s hardening of attempts to intimidate Taiwan, India, among other Chinese neighbors, have become alarmed at the possible threat China poses to the rules-based order.
Dr. Hashmi calls on India to call for maintaining the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait as well as the need to encourage” Taiwan’s participation in the Indo-Pacific region.” As Dr. Hashmi points out, India has itself faced Chinese coercion, and China’s aggression towards Taiwan could be a harbinger of similar Chinese aggression against India.
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NEW SOUTHBOUND POLICY NEWS |
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Taipei Times
NSP Must Become More ‘People-Centric’: Academic |
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December 16, 2022
As the government continues to promote the New Southbound Policy (NSP), it needs to develop different approaches for the 18 nations targeted by the policy, Indian academic Sana Hashmi said on Wednesday during a speech in Taipei.
The 18 countries targeted by the NSP, first launched by President Tsai Ing-wen’s administration in 2016, have different geographical sizes, interests and policies, Hashmi said at the event hosted by the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation (TAEF).
“Not one policy is going to fit all 18 countries,” said Hashmi, who is a postdoctoral fellow at the TAEF and an affiliated academic with the Research Institute for Indo-Pacific Affairs in Japan.
There needs to be different policies for different countries, “specifically for countries such as India, Australia, Malaysia and Singapore… It is a people-centric policy,” Hashmi added.
The government ought to make more effort to strengthen people-to-people ties between Taiwan and NSP partner countries, through either the promotion of tourism or educational cooperation, such as the provision of scholarships and fellowships, she said.
Taiwan’s six-year-old New Southbound Policy explains some of the bilateral investment with Australia, a commission data analyst said. The policy encourages more trade, investment, travel and study between Taiwan and 18 Asia-Pacific countries, including Australia, although mainland China is not on the list.
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Taipei Times
Indonesians Essential for Taiwan |
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December 14, 2022
Since the 1970s, Indonesia and Taiwan have maintained a positive relationship. In 1970, Indonesia set up an official trade office in Taipei. Taiwan reciprocated by establishing its representative office in Jakarta the following year.
During 52 years of bilateral ties, people-to-people interactions between Indonesia and Taiwan have significantly strengthened both countries’ relations.
On Nov. 25, the National Immigration Agency reported that there are 237,049 Indonesians living in Taiwan. Indonesians are the second-largest group of foreign residents in Taiwan after Vietnamese. Living harmoniously in Taiwanese society, across the nation’s 22 administrative regions, they play a vital role in Taiwan’s social and economic life, particularly the Indonesian dispora.
Migrant workers make up the main group of the Indonesian diaspora. They work in factories and as caregivers in households, and they have become integral to daily life in Taiwan. Indonesian caregivers, for instance, assist thousands of Taiwanese families by caring for older people.
Indonesian migrant workers are important for Taiwan’s economy and can serve as agents of Indonesian cultural diplomacy.
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Nikkei Asia
Can ASEAN Avoid Overtourism as Arrivals Return to Pre-COVID Levels?
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December 20
, 2022
As the pandemic subsides and tourism returns to pre-pandemic levels, ASEAN countries are confronting the challenge of how to balance tourism and sustainability. Pre-pandemic, researchers argued that excessive levels of tourism damaged important habitats; now, governments must decide whether they are willing to act to protect the environment, even at the cost of sacrificing revenue in the near term.
Indonesia’s government is one example of a failure to undertake tourism-reducing measures. Its Sunda Islands, the only place where Komodo Dragons are found, announced a plan to raise the entrance fee in order to reduce tourist levels and increase revenues. However, the government faced fierce opposition from local authorities and the tourist industry, eventually backing down. While some restrictions will still go ahead, the fee increase is canceled.
One vital factor to consider is ASEAN countries’ reliance on the tourism industry. Given that they are also expected to be the region that recovers their pre-pandemic tourist levels the fastest, there is increasing urgency to preserve the environmental recovery that many tourist spots made during the pandemic. But if businesses and governments fail to take a long-term view on the possibility of sustainable tourism, a crucial opportunity may be lost.
Read more
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The Diplomat
India-US Semiconductor Cooperation
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December 12, 2022
The United States, in a quest to insulate critical technology supply chains from China, wants to expand its partnerships on building semiconductors with like-minded countries like India and Taiwan. Washington has pledged to assist India in the building of this sector. India is expecting to bring in a total investment of around $25 billion as a result of its incentive scheme, which will aim at boosting the local manufacturing of semiconductors. The goal is to make India a major player in the global supply chain.
How can India make the most of out of this opportunity?
Indian academics have some interesting points to make in this regard. Dr. Abhinav Kumar Sharma, a professor of operations and data science at NMIMS University in Mumbai, feels that there are still too many unknowns to predict the scope and future of this India-U.S. semiconductor partnership. “India is currently nascent in the semiconductor manufacturing industry,” Sharma said. “The government of India is focused on providing impetus to the manufacturing sector through Production-Linked Incentives (PLI) scheme.”
Critics of the collaboration in India state that in the last seven to eight years, India seems to be lost in the global market. It is just attempting to mimic the West without understanding the differences between the two.
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The Economist
Independent Media in South-East Asia are Struggling to Survive
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December 4, 2022
In August the Mekong Review, a small, independent literary magazine focused on South-East Asia announced that it was shutting up shop. The main reasons were economic.
It had always been a “labour of love” for Minh Bui Jones, the Australian founder and editor, who launched the magazine in 2015 in Cambodia. In 2019 Mr Bui Jones started to expand the magazine’s coverage to Hong Kong, as he felt that the protests happening there would have repercussions across the region. But in 2020 police in Hong Kong raided a printing press and ordered a halt to production. Mr Bui Jones found a printer in Bangkok—but the publication’s coverage of the anti-monarchy protests in Thailand soon gave that printer cold feet as well.
With covid-19 creating even more difficulties, Mr Bui Jones decided he needed a break. He sold it to a buyer from Australia and agreed to stay on as editor for a final issue, which was published in November.
South-East Asia has always been a “Western creation”, argues Mr Bui Jones, a collection of countries with “no interest in each other”. Yet, when working on the Mekong Review, he realised that “Thailand was looking at what was happening in Hong Kong, then in Taiwan, and then, of course, later on in Myanmar.” A generation of young people, “Cambodians, Vietnamese, Thai, Burmese, Laotians…came of age when the internet penetrated their respective countries,” laying the groundwork for a region that has more cultural dialogue than ever before.
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And lastly, TAEF wishes you a joyous Christmas and New Year filled with love and happiness. See you in 2023! |
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