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TAEF BRIEF
February 10, 2023
No. 103 |
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CONTENT
-TAEF Updates
-TAEF Media Gallery
-TAEF Commentaries
-New Southbound Policy News
-Regional Headlines |
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TAEF and GTI Launches New Policy Brief: Assessing Trends and Demand Signals for Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy and Building a US-Taiwan Coordination Mechanism |
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January 30, 2023
In 2021, the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation worked with the Global Taiwan Institute to initiate a policy-focused exchange on Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy (NSP) and US strategic interests in the Indo-Pacific region, resulting in a policy brief,
Connecting Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy with US Strategy for the Indo-Pacific Region. This year, we are pleased to once again collaborate with the Global Taiwan Institute in Washington D.C. on this initiative.
This policy brief follows up on last year’s brief to assess the implementation of NSP initiatives, dynamics within Southeast Asia, and coordination with the US’s Indo-Pacific Strategy. Implementation of the NSP has been broadly successful in deepening ties between Taiwan and NSP countries, and future complementary bilateral US-Taiwan development assistance in Southeast Asia presents a unique opportunity to promote shared interests and values and shape a new regional framework.
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TAEF Welcomes the SIIA Delegation |
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January 13, 2023
On January 13, TAEF welcomed the delegation of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA). The delegation member included:
- Simon Tay, Chairman of the SIIA; Associate Professor of National University of Singapore
- Manu Bhaskaran, Partner of the Centennial Group; Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies in Singapore
- Lim Choon Leng, Director of Policy Programmes and Development, SIIA
- Ho Tong Yen, Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) and Director of Group Corporate Communications at Keppel Corporation and concurrently CEO of Keppel Care Foundation
- Oh Ei Sun, Senior Fellow SIIA
Both think tanks shared with each other their current projects and discussed the outlook of the Indo-Pacific Region. Since the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, the Indo-Pacific region has gained international attention. In Taiwan, President Tsai declared at the 2022 Yushan Forum that “the New Southbound Policy (NSP) is at the center of Taiwan's own Indo-Pacific strategy.” Meanwhile, Singapore is one of the NSP key partner countries. Against these overlapping grounds of interest, we look forward to potential collaboration opportunities between both think tanks.
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Full Sessions of the 2022 Yushan Forum Are Now Available on TAEF's Youtube Channel |
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Organized by TAEF, the annual Yushan Forum: Asian Dialogue for Innovation and Progress provides a prominent platform for facilitating regional dialogues and showcasing both governmental and non-governmental cooperation between Taiwan and its neighboring partner countries. By doing so, the Yushan Forum helps foster stronger social connectivity for the region's youth by encouraging innovation, progressive ideas, and diverse regional partnerships.
In its sixth edition, last year’s Yushan Forum invited 35 international leaders, new generation young leaders, business representatives, and civil society leaders from 13 countries to speak in the forum's various sessions. Unable to be physically present at the forum, 10 global leaders from 8 countries sent video greetings and/or congratulatory messages in support of the forum. In addition, a total of 27 ambassadors and foreign representatives from 19 representative offices in Taiwan participated in the opening ceremony. Finally, the 2022 Yushan Forum welcomed more than 400 guests to join the day's dialogues.
The 2022 Yushan Forum witnessed fruitful exchange of wisdom between leaders and representatives from home and abroad during the opening, two key sessions, one roundtable dialogue, the luncheon, and the dinner. TAEF is excited to share with you the full sessions of the 2022 Yushan Forum, available now on the our YouTube channel.
Check out the full playlist
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Taipei Times
Taiwan, India Need to Keep Talking
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January 18, 2023
-Dr. Sana Hashmi, Postdoctoral Fellow, Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation
In her recent article, Dr. Sana Hashmi discussed the need for Taiwan and India to become more proactive in engaging each other.
According to her article, Taiwan-India relations saw an improvement last year. The government’s shifting stance toward Taiwan was visible on several occasions. It included: an unprecedented statement by India on China's unprovoked agression in the Taiwan Strait after the then-US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit; India's reception of Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Chen Chern-chyi; and an agreement between India’s Vedanta Ltd and Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Co to establish a semiconductor plant in the Indian state of Gujarat.
While such developments were positive, it is important to establish a long-term framework and minimize the China factor further. To do so, Dr. Hashmi said that "a certain degree of clarity is important. The two countries have a lot to gain by defining their interests. There are a few steps that India should take toward Taiwan."
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Ankara Center for Crisis and Policy Studies
TAEF Postdoctoral Researcher Dr. Sana Hashmi: “Japan Perceives Chinese Activities in the Region as a Threat.”
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January 12, 2023
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Dr. Sana Hashmi, Postdoctoral Fellow, Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation
On November 17, 2022, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Bangkok. At the meeting, a 5-point memorandum was signed aiming at stabilize and improve bilateral relations. After signing this MoU, it began to be wondered how Japan’s regional policies and relations with the United States (the US) would follow. These dialogues are seen, above all, as an effort to reduce the risk of war in the region. On the other hand, China may have a different agenda by improving relations with the US’s allies in the region.
From this point of view, Ankara Center for Crisis and Policy Studies (ANKASAM) presents the views it received from Dr. Sana Hashmi, Postdoctoral Fellow at TAEF, in order to evaluate the recent developments in China-Japan relations and its impact on the US’s regional policies.
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TaiwanPlus
Taiwan's Growing Economic Potential in Southeast Asia
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January 6, 2023
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Dr. Sana Hashmi, Postdoctoral Fellow, Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation
As one of President Tsai Ing-wen’s key policies since taking office in 2016, the New Southbound Policy (NSP) aims to enhance cooperation on all fronts with 18 countries in the region. The policy focuses on trade, cultural, talent, security, and other exchanges in building new and improving existing multilateral ties with Taiwan. Recently, TaiwanPlus took a look at the progress New Southbound has made, including how it has helped Taiwan to find new alliances and potential markets as Taiwanese businesses move out of China.
Dr. Sana Hashmi joined this exclusive interview alongside John Deng, Taiwan Minister without Portfolio to discuss on how Taiwan is decoupling economically from China and expanding in South and Southeast Asia through the NSP. In particular, Dr. Hashmi unpacked the avenues awaiting more Taiwan-India economic collaboration as well as how to upgrade the bilateral ties between Taiwan and India, which are essentially mutually beneficial, through Taiwan's "soft power".
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NEW SOUTHBOUND POLICY NEWS |
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ICEF Monitor
Taiwan Ties New International Recruitment Goals to Labour Shortages
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February 8, 2023
Faced with a shrinking workforce and, if current forecasts hold, a declining population by the start of the next decade, Taiwan has launched an ambitious plan to attract up to 400,000 foreign workers. As part of that plan, Taiwan also has a goal to recruit 200,000 degree-seeking international students by 2030, up from a pre-pandemic base of about 63,000. Throughout the 2010s, much of the growth in those student numbers came from markets in South and Southeast Asia.
This growth trend was the result of a deliberate government strategy (“The New Southbound Talent Development Program“) which targets key markets in the region. The southbound plan was enacted in 2016 to encourage closer economic and cultural ties between Taiwan and 18 other Asian countries, including Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand.
Observers have pointed out, however, that Taiwan will need to strengthen its offer to top talent, including clear pathways to residency and work after graduation, in order to compete with neighbouring destinations, including Hong Kong, Singapore, and China.
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Taipei Times
Taipei Hails ASEAN’s Strait Talk
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February 6, 2023
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed a joint statement on February 5 by ASEAN leaders voicing concerns that the situation across the Taiwan Strait could affect regional stability. The statement was issued after the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Retreat ended on Saturday in Jakarta. It was the first major meeting since Indonesia assumed chairmanship of ASEAN this year.
Attendees of the meeting reiterated their determination to promote “sustainable peace, security, stability, and prosperity within and beyond the region,” the statement said. ASEAN leaders also expressed through the statement that the cross-strait situation “could lead to miscalculation, serious confrontation, open conflicts, and unpredictable consequences.”
The ministry called on ASEAN member states to continue to support democratic Taiwan and pay attention to cross-strait peace and stability. It also said Taiwan is willing to deepen cooperation with ASEAN based on the solid foundation of the New Southbound Policy to protect the rules-based international order and facilitate peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region.
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New Bloom
Action Urged By National Human Rights Commission On Stateless Status of Undocumented Children
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January 12, 2023
The National Human Rights Commission has called on the government to take action regarding two undocumented siblings who are stateless, but have spent their entire lives in Taiwan.
This is due to their mother’s undocumented status, seeing as she left her previous employment and so has no official status in Taiwan. Likewise, while their mother was previously married to a man in Vietnam, she has no way to prove that the marriage no longer exists.
The plight facing children of undocumented migrant workers more broadly points to the lack of immigration policy in Taiwan, in which all but a small group of elite foreigners are prevented from obtaining citizenship. Migrant workers are only permitted to stay twelve years in Taiwan and while new residency plans have been rolled out, they are prohibitively difficult to qualify for, and place qualification in the hands of employers.
Lack of immigration policy, then, creates issues for the children of undocumented migrant workers. Yet it is also the case that migrant mothers who have children in Taiwan to Taiwanese spouses are often left in a lurch when their husbands file for divorce. Such mothers have little means of recourse to separation from their children, with a significant roadblock being a four-year period in which migrant workers married to Taiwanese cannot apply to citizenship.
This takes place at a time that Taiwan has touted efforts to develop stronger political and economic ties with southeast Asian countries under the New Southbound Policy, not only for Taiwan’s labor supply, but to reduce reliance on the Chinese market. Either way, the New Southbound Policy has not resulted in a willingness to make structural changes to Taiwanese immigration policy.
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The Diplomat
Where Are Southeast Asia's Tech Companies Headed?
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February 8
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It seems like these days the American economy is in over-drive everywhere except the tech sector. The most recent jobs report showed over 500,000 jobs added in January, yet Alphabet – the parent company of Google – recently laid off 12,000 employees and there have been cost reductions and job losses up and down the industry. This echoes a similar trend in Southeast Asia, where economic growth in 2022 was on the whole quite solid, but big tech companies like GoTo and Sea nevertheless slashed jobs.
How can we explain this disconnect between the tech sector and the wider economy? One factor is that in low-interest rate environments (like we had during the pandemic) investors have more incentive to search out higher returning and more speculative assets.
Singapore’s Sea, the parent company of Shopee, is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. In late 2021 Sea’s stock was above $350 a share. When interest rates started rising, the stock saw a massive correction and prices plummeted. Sea reportedly laid off about 10 percent of its workforce during a six-month period in 2022.
Indonesia’s GoTo had a similar experience. It listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange at the beginning of 2022, but shares have steadily declined in value since. Despite the company’s massive presence in Indonesia and across the region, it is unprofitable. GoTo laid off 1,300 workers last year.
What’s going on here? I think a lot depends on what kind of value you believe Big Tech adds to the real economy.
Read more
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The Diplomat
The Asia Pacific's Next Refugee Crisis is Coming - Ready or Not
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February 7, 2023
Last year marked 20 years since the creation of the Bali Process on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons, and Related Transnational Crime. Commendable for its longevity, serious-minded policy dialogue, and capacity building, the Bali Process’ potential as a platform for regional cooperation on irregular movement remains unrealized. Distressed boats of Rohingya refugees left to drift in the Andaman Sea and Indian Ocean in the final two months of 2022 were another tragic reminder of this.
Persistent conflict and instability in Myanmar, coupled with dire conditions in refugee camps in Bangladesh, mean more people are certain to undertake dangerous journeys in search of safety and opportunity elsewhere. The region must be ready.
The groundwork has been laid. The 2016 Bali Declaration, agreed upon by Bali Process members at the Sixth Ministerial Conference, is a call for wide-ranging collective action to respond to irregular movement. An internal review of the Bali Process’ response to the Andaman Sea Crisis also followed in late 2016.
Unfortunately, that window was largely missed. As irregular maritime movement dropped off after 2015 and international scrutiny faded, momentum behind the Bali Declaration and internal review eased.
Without a more comprehensive regional response, regional governments are unlikely to move away from reflexive approaches to irregular movement dominated by border management and national security.
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The Economist
China's Put-Upon Maritime Neighbors Are Pushing Back
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February 1, 2023
The South China Sea is a third larger than the Mediterranean and has valuable fish stocks and untapped oil and gas reserves. Connecting East Asia’s economic miracle with much of the rest of the world, its waters play an outsize role in global maritime trade and security. Yet there is a problem. All seven nations that border the sea maintain overlapping rights to it. And one of them, China, claims nearly the entire maritime expanse—and struts about it like a municipal swimming-bath bully.
With massive terraforming, China has turned remote reefs into airstrips and bases. It uses its navy and coastguard, as well as “maritime militias” of armed fishing fleets, to intimidate its South-East Asian neighbours. It forcibly curtails their fishing and exploration for hydrocarbons. It is obstructing the Philippines’ efforts to resupply a remote island outpost. Yet for the first time in a decade, China is no longer making all the running in and around the sea. South-East Asians are at last refusing to yield to its provocations. This might—just—represent a turning-point in their struggle against the regional thug.
In legal discussions with China, a senior South-East Asian diplomat notes, its maritime neighbours are taking enormous care not even to acknowledge its bogus nine-dash line claims. Partly as a result, China is seeing its various proposals to individual countries—for a bilateral fisheries agreement, say, or a deal on jointly exploring for hydrocarbons—turned down. Similarly, China is failing to cajole the ten-country ASEAN into signing off on a tension-reducing code of conduct in the sea.
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