TAIWAN REACHES OUT TO SOUTHEAST ASIA
FROM a manufacturing and electronic equipment-producing economy, the vibrant Republic of China (Taiwan) has emerged as a major player in global affairs, especially among its Southeast Asian neighbors.
As expressed by Representative of Taiwan, ROC to the Philippines Gary Song-Huann Lin, culture is an important instrument of diplomacy in this day and age.
“Cultural diplomacy is not limited to only art, music, dance, literature, but [also] the soul and breath of a nation like the traditions, language, cuisine, costumes, way of life, customs and beliefs, which, in general, make a people and a nation,” he told The Sunday Times Magazine during a brief visit to his office in Manila.
Through culture, according to him, humans transcend political rivalries, military conflicts and various challenges.
It is exactly in this context that President Tsai Ing- wen saw the exigency of Taiwan’s “New Southbound Policy,” which reaches out to other countries in the Asia Pacific region, including the Philippines, placing tremendous weight on the “advancement of cultural diplomacy as a form of soft power.”
PH, first of priority partners
Taiwan extends food production, agriculture, health care, shelter, education, emergency response, transportation, technology, tourism, job placement, finance and infrastructure—areas that make up soft power—to 18 priority economies in Asia and the Pacific, with six countries identified as both recipients and partners of its New Southbound Policy.
With its proximity to the Luzon peninsula, the Philippines became the first country to sign a renewed bilateral agreement with Taiwan that, according to Lin, “puts in place mechanisms that make investments more transparent and the treatment of investors fairer, including provisions on how investors can seek government assistance when they run into trouble.”
While the investment deal signed in 1992 only covered the manufacturing sector, the agreement signed on December 7, 2017 in Manila has expanded the scope of bilateral investment to include the financial sector, infrastructure and intellectual property.
Six other deals were also signed as part of ministerial trade and economic consultations including Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) on green or renewable energy, insurance industry supervision and professional training.
Taiwanese Vice Economics Minister Wang Mei-hua, who witnessed the signing between Lin and his counterpart Manila Economic Cooperative Office (MECO) representative in Taipei, Angelito Banayo, expressed how the renewed agreement with the Philippines “will inspire other Southeast Asian countries to [follow suit and] renew their investment agreements with Taiwan.”
Taiwan is aware of the Philippines’ possibility as “important gateway” to expand into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean). The remaining priority countries in the New Southbound Policy are Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and India.
Warmer diplomatic and cultural relations
On September 5, 2016, barely four months into office, President Tsai Ing-wen launched the New Southbound Policy “to aid in promoting regional exchange and collaboration with the 10 members of Asean and countries in South Asia like India, and Pacific heavyweights Australia and New Zealand.” The people-centered agenda cater to four fronts: trade cooperation, talent exchanges, sharing resources and regional links. It was an update of the Go South Policy enacted by President Teng-hui Lee in 1994.
From January 28 to February 2, Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs hosted a group of journalists from Southeast Asia to show how the New Southbound Policy works and affects workers, investors, immigrants, students and tourists from said countries.
Two came from Indonesia and one each from Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Brunei and the Philippines, represented by The
Sunday Times Magazine. The six-day familiarization tour turned out to be an excellent venue for cultural and diplomatic exchanges among the participants and Taiwan’s government agencies strongly tied to the New Southbound Policy.
According to various local and national government, the New Southbound Policy goes beyond government level. They said leadership and involvement of civil society is crucial for the success of the agenda, like non-government organizations (NGOs) concerned with Southeast Asian migrant workers. In fact, an official of the National Immigration Agency told The Sunday Times
Magazine that they assist even those who entered Taiwan illegally since they could well be victims of unscrupulous recruitment agencies in their homelands.
Assimilation
Of the almost 700,000 migrant workers in Taiwan, Indonesians constitute the biggest group, numbering more than 250,000; followed by Vietnamese at almost 200,000; and then Filipinos at around 150,000, mostly employed in the manufacturing and domestic sectors.
At the forefront of helping migrant workers is One-Forty Foundation, underscored
as the bridge between Southeast Asian migrant workers and Taiwanese employers.
Their main objective is for migrant workers to think about their future and what they can do to help make life in Taiwan better, according to an official of the immigration agency. This includes helping them to learn Mandarin, adapt to their new environment and update their skills in their field. It is also a platform where fellow migrants can share experiences with one another, especially from those of the same nationality.
Think tank Prospect Foundation, meanwhile, headed by IChung Lai, said that they have been coordinating with research and development centers in academic institutions in all priority Asean countries, including Brunei.
And while there is no direct financial assistance funnelled through partner agencies, Southeast Asian nationals are encouraged to study in Taiwan, particularly those who want to pursue doctorate and masteral as their universities have many scholarship slots available for qualified individuals.
Social integration
The Taiwanese government and its general citizenship have embraced the reality that Southeast Asians have long become an important part of their society—building families with Taiwanese partners, contributing to fiscal and economic growth and increasing the flow of human and intellectual wealth in the region.
This vibrant inter-cultural atmosphere is exemplified in areas like the Huaxin Street in New Taipei City where third generation mainlander origin returnees from Myanmar have resettled; the Indonesian neighborhood within the vicinity of the Taipei railway station; and the weekend Filipino Town (like the Chater Road in Hong Kong’s Central District) around St. Christopher’s Church in Zhongshan District in Taipei City. Thai Buddhist monks are also seen lounging around the capital city’s iconic landmark, Taipei 101.
As two Taiwanese academicians noted, these Southeast Asian communities have developed distinct cultural and economic characteristics and reshaped the human landscape of Taipei.
“The two-way exchanges between Taiwan and Southeast Asia have thus changed the street scene in the cities and are in the process of gradually shaping new collective identity. This is a community consciousness that brings together immigrant life and culture at both local and regional levels,” Alan Yan and Hsin- Huang Michael Hsiao shared with The Sun
day Times Magazine. Their statement is lifted from their published treatise in the NBR – The National Bureau of Asian Research – titled “Repositioning Taiwan in Southeast Asia: Strategies to Enhance Peopleto-People Connectivity.”
“In the near future, it is conceivable that there will be more than a million ethnic Southeast Asians who have put down roots in Taiwan. The country will no longer be a lonesome Asian offshore isle but instead become part of the ASEAN Community as a contributing stakeholder based in solid partnership and further regional integration,” they added.
They further highlighted that the timely launch of the New Southbound Policy not only underlines the soft connectivity between Taiwan and Southeast Asia but also strengthens the partnerships between Taiwan and the region.
Common history
Taiwan’s ties with Southeast Asia predate the now familiar notion of sovereign nation states and their territorial boundaries, going back to the history of Taiwan’s aboriginal peoples.
The languages of Formosa ( the name of the island given by Portuguese explorers and colonizers in the 1500s) which Taiwan aborigines speak are a part of the Austronesia language family, with influences from Southeast Asian tongues like Tagalog and Malay.
Scholars attribute this spread of languages and cultures to migration through the maritime routes linking Taiwan to various parts of Southeast Asia, starting with Luzon, which is just across the Bashi Channel from southern Taiwan.