Assessing Taiwan’s ‘people-centred’ New Southbound Policy in Southeast Asia

5 August 2021

When Tsai Ing-wen first entered office in May 2016, she was determined to counterbalance Taiwan’s heavy reliance on China for investment, tourism, trade and students. Like several administrations before her, she looked to strengthen ties with Southeast Asia, initiating the New Southbound Policy (NSP) as her flagship foreign policy initiative. Ostensibly focused on people-centred diplomacy, the New Southbound Policy now finds itself under pressure to prove that it can succeed where previous attempts towards closer ties have failed.

A people-centred policy

Taiwan and Southeast Asia have maintained a growing people-to-people relationship since the promotion of the ‘Go South Policy’ in 1994 by President Lee Teng-hui. Over the following decade, Taiwan regularly received students, workers, and spouses from Southeast Asia. ASEAN member countries, meanwhile, hosted Taiwanese businesspeople and their investment, sustaining political-economic linkages.

After the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) electoral victory in 2016, President Tsai Ing-wen turbo-charged Taiwan’s people-centred diplomacy, making people-to-people connections the core pillar of the New Southbound Policy in Southeast Asia. Having faced several diplomatic backlashes and limited engagement in the international arena due to Beijing’s aggressive approach, the Tsai administration saw the NSP as a solution to boost Taiwan’s visibility and foreign engagement. The policy prioritises Taiwan’s soft power, with a particular accent on higher education, the talent industry, and new immigrants.

Epistemic networks in Taiwan and Southeast Asia might learn from the success of their counterparts in European and North American countries in establishing regional Taiwan Studies associations.

If the first iteration of the Go South Policy was mainly led by the government, the NSP encourages both the public and private sectors in Taiwan to engage with their counterparts and build cross-border interactions. In its first four years, the NSP has certainly seen increased cooperation between Taiwan and Southeast Asia. The easing of visa requirements under the NSP has brought large numbers of tourists. The volume of tourists from ASEAN increased by up to 56 per cent between 2016 and 2018. This was an encouraging development for Taiwan’s tourism industry, particularly after Beijing imposed a travel ban on solo tourists from mainland China to Taiwan in August 2019.

On the higher education front, the Taiwanese government has been offering various scholarships to bring more students from Southeast Asia to Taiwan. Consequently, Indonesian students’ enrolment has doubled from 4,001 in 2017 to 8,533 in 2019. Other countries, such as Vietnam and the Philippines, have also experienced similar trends. The NSP has also facilitated the establishment of Southeast Asian Studies Departments or Programs in several Taiwanese universities. It aims to provide opportunities for the second and third generation of new immigrants to connect with their ancestral countries in Southeast Asia through language and cultural learning.

The population of new immigrants, significantly comprising Southeast Asian spouses and their mixed-ethnicity children, are an important migrant community in Taiwan. Most of these women are not ethnic Chinese; they speak one of the Southeast Asian languages and have a different cultural background from the Taiwanese. They have been part of a discourse on multiculturalism in Taiwan, diversifying the composition of Taiwanese society from language, culture, and ethnicity. The Taiwanese government has also utilised them as part of the state’s public diplomacy, mainly during the celebration of International Migrants Day.

Improving “two-way” exchanges

Despite showing some encouraging developments, the policy lacks ‘genuine’ exchanges between Southeast Asia and Taiwan. It is expected that the NSP will help to expand and spur “two-way” exchanges in the fields of education, culture, and the talent industry. However, there remains a clear imbalance in study abroad and knowledge exchange figures between Taiwan and the NSP targeting countries.

First, the number of Taiwanese students pursuing a university degree in Southeast Asia was far lower than the enrolment of Southeast Asian students in Taiwan’s universities. Taiwan’s Ministry of Education recorded less than 1,000 Taiwanese students departing for Southeast Asia to study in 2020. Most Taiwanese youths remain oriented towards the United States and Japan in their international outlook. The NSP is mainly an elite strategy to dilute ties with China instead of promoting equal people-to-people exchanges with Southeast Asia.

Taiwan’s shortcomings in facilitating short-term study abroad programs are particularly striking when compared to Australia. Under its New Colombo Plan, Australia has sent 8,267 undergraduate students to undertake studies and internships in ASEAN member countries between 2014 and 2018. The Taiwanese government should do more to encourage its universities to send students to Southeast Asia. It is also essential for Taiwanese diplomats dispatched to Southeast Asia to learn regional languages. This would help Taiwan to better understand the region from the lens of government and society.

Studying for one or two semesters in Southeast Asian countries would allow Taiwanese students to learn regional languages, immerse themselves in different cultures, and engage with the local people. This will help build a positive image between Taiwan and Southeast Asian countries. Many people in Taiwan still look at Southeast Asia mainly as a source of workers, fishermen, maids, and a site of overseas Chinese. By sending more Taiwanese to Southeast Asia, the NSP could help change social prejudices and sentiments against Southeast Asians.

Second, while the establishment of Southeast Asian centres in Taiwan is flourishing, there is little reciprocation. Aside from some small scale efforts at universities in Southeast Asia to set up centres of Taiwan studies, no Southeast Asian Taiwan Studies associations have been established in the region. Epistemic communities on both sides might consider working on this challenge to improve equal exchanges in research and encourage collaboration. Epistemic networks in Taiwan and Southeast Asia might learn from the success of their counterparts in European and North American countries in establishing regional Taiwan Studies associations. The Taiwanese government should also play an active role in fostering the establishment of such associations.

Third, expanding higher education scholarships for developing countries would also help Taiwan fulfil its Sustainable Development Goals target. The promotion of education diplomacy requires not only equal exchanges between students but also the program’s evaluation from the scholarship recipients. Implementing a global tracer study among alumni of the Taiwan Government Scholarship will help Taiwan measure its developmental aid impact. Countries like the UK and Australia, for example, have long conducted graduate surveys among alumni of the government scholarships to provide evidence-based insights into the outcomes of the scholarships. Such studies would also buttress Taiwan’s good governance image of being accountable and transparent in the use of its developmental funding.

The ‘people-centred’ New Southbound Policy has contributed to improving the relationship between Taiwan and Southeast Asia. The region has long been seen as an alternative for Taiwan to diversify its market and expand its regional connections amidst increasing pressure from Beijing. While the NSP helps Taiwan dilute its ties with China, there are clearly several areas for improvement, and advancing ‘genuine’ exchanges between the two sides will be crucial for making this policy impactful.

DISCLAIMER: All views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent that of the 9DASHLINE.com platform.

Author biography

Ratih Kabinawa is a PhD candidate in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Western Australia. Her main academic interest is in transnational politics and Taiwan’s foreign policy in Southeast Asia. She tweets @RatihKabinawa. Image credit: Office of the President, Republic of China (Taiwan).