Southbound Policy Research Articles

Taiwan’s scientific collaboration under the New Southbound Policy: Trends, effects, mechanisms, and implications

My dissertation explores the evolving trends and patterns in Taiwan’s scientific collaboration under the New Southbound Policy (NSP), with a focus on research co-authorship with NSP target countries across Southeast and South Asia, as well as Australia and New Zealand. Launched in 2016, the NSP represents Taiwan’s strategic effort to reintegrate into the Indo-Pacific region amidst shifting geopolitical realities. This study investigates the underexplored dynamics of scientific collaboration and the seldom-tested policy effects in a non-Western, non-colonial context, exemplifying science diplomacy in action. Specifically, this research addresses three key questions: (1) What are the long-term trends in research collaboration with NSP target countries from the mid-2000s to 2021? (2) How do co-authorship patterns and dynamics manifest in cross-specialization profiles and authorship orders among these countries? (3) What impact has the NSP had on the volume of co-authored research? Methodologically, this study combines bibliometric, network, and modeling approaches. It employs established bibliometric indicators for measuring attractiveness and preferences among partnered countries, multilayer network analysis, and piecewise models of change. The primary data sources are drawn from Clarivate’s Web of Science, accessed in both aggregated forms via the Observatoire des sciences et des technologies and as raw JSON data retrieved through the Web of Science Expanded API. By analyzing the patterns, effects, and mechanisms of Taiwan’s scientific collaboration with NSP target countries, this dissertation contributes to broadening theories and methodologies of international scientific collaboration. It also sheds light on South–South collaboration and offers policy implications for nations navigating similar geopolitical challenges.

‘What if I get sick?’ Healthcare (non)decisions of overseas Filipino workers in Taiwan

The increasing presence of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Taiwan, particularly in the electronics and technology (E&T) industry, has raised concerns about their health and health-seeking behaviours. Our study draws on a theoretical framework combining Brandenberger et al.’s 3C model, which considers challenges in communication, continuity of care, and confidence regarding healthcare delivery for migrant workers, with Scott’s sociology of nothing. This framework enables us to interpret the decisions of OFWs on seeking care, not seeking care, or not making any decision. Although the National Health Insurance covers migrant workers and the New South Bound Policy commits to promoting migrant health, narrative accounts of individual workers, migrant rights advocates, and shelter organisers inform us of OFWs’ ambivalence towards utilising the healthcare resources available. The decisions made by OFWs in the E&T industry may include seeking assistance, not seeking assistance, or not addressing health concerns due to legal, financial, or cultural reasons. The contextual nuances behind their decisions led us to look beyond the challenges they face and argue for interventions such as peer education on legal rights awareness and health literacy to enable OFWs to make informed decisions about their well-being.

Integration of Narrative Strategies in Poster Design Education for Southeast Asian Students

Owing to the proactive implementation of the New Southbound Policy, the proportion of Southeast Asian students studying in Taiwan is steadily increasing. They exhibit variations in perceptions, communication, and cultural backgrounds in learning. These differences often lead to confusion and challenges during the coursework. In this study, we integrate narrative strategies into poster design education, where professors teach students textual contexts to identify and solve problems, and ultimately integrate design knowledge and skills. We investigated the differences in the student’s performance in poster design after the integration of narrative strategies and their reactions. Using a pre-experimental one-group pretest-posttest design with 40 Southeast Asian students, the 12-week experimental teaching was offered. Significant improvements in creativity, text composition, illustrations, layout, and color in poster design were observed after the period. The students could utilize transformation and metaphor as design techniques, demonstrating that integrating narrative strategies stimulated students’ imaginative capacities. Such a result indicates significant efficacy in enhancing the learning experiences of Southeast Asian students.

Taiwan’s Regional Identity under the New Southbound Policy

Abstract Discussion of Taiwan’s identity usually focuses more on its domestic identity in terms of a dichotomy between Chinese and Taiwanese identity than its regional identity. But the New Southbound Policy provides space to discuss Taiwan’s regional identity due to its emphasis on Taiwan’s relations with its southern neighbours. Adopting a constructivist perspective of International Relations, this article explores the construction of Taiwan’s regional identity and the influence of Taiwan–Southeast Asia relations. I point out two key findings: (1) Taiwan’s changing perception of Southeast Asia is critical for the construction of Taiwan’s regional identity, including this region as a ‘significant other’ for Taiwan’s role identity; and (2) Taiwan’s regional identity under the New Southbound Policy integrates both personal and role identities, and covers both domestic and regional dimensions.

Investigating resilience of international students at a public university in Southern Taiwan and its implications for the New Southbound Policy

While the initiative behind Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy is largely driven by economic, political and academic priorities, this study promotes strengthening the psychological dimension of the policy to support its increasing international student population. The current study examines how optimism and emotional regulation predicts resilient behavior among a sample of international students in Taiwan. Empirical results from regression analysis showed that there is a positive association between optimism and resilience, while mediation analyses reported that optimism is also a partial mediator between emotion regulation and resilience, which nuances their relationship. The findings bear significant policy implications to Taiwan’s educational development initiative.

Taiwan's Digital Public Diplomacy Towards Indonesia in Supporting its New Southbound Policy

This research aims to analyze Taiwan’s digital public diplomacy to Indonesia and generally in ASEAN countries in supporting Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy. It concerns elaborating and assessing to what extent digital diplomacy can assist Taiwan in achieving its new southbound policy goals and its limitations. This paper assesses Taiwan government’s social media, especially the Ministry of Foreign Affairs official social media and other digital media platforms that have been used to promote and inform New Southbound Policy and the president's social media accounts. It employs digital diplomacy in International Relations as a conceptual framework that is part of public diplomacy. This research is a qualitative content analysis, that analyzed terms such as New Southbound Policy, Indonesia, and Taiwan. The study found that Taiwan’s digital public diplomacy support its New Southbound Policy towards Indonesia in term of, but is not limited to, resource sharing, people-to-people exchange, and promoting institutional links. It meets digital diplomacy efficiency and objectives. Taiwan's digital diplomacy can achieve its agenda-setting and presence expansion but limited in generating optimal convensation. Those media platforms used in Taiwan’s digital diplomacy, can meet digital diplomacy objectives that are delivery of information, consular service, and engagement and expand the network.

An Evaluation of the Trade Outcomes between Taiwan and Malaysia under the New Southbound Policy (NSP)

Upon assuming office in 2016, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s administration revitalized the Southbound Policy (SP), rebranding it as the New Southbound Policy (NSP). While both the SP and NSP share a common objective — to reduce Taiwan’s heavy reliance on the Chinese market — the NSP, unlike its predecessor, places a dual emphasis on enhancing economic ties and concurrently spreading Taiwan’s soft power across the designated markets. Despite being one of the target markets under the NSP, Malaysia did not consistently experience a surge in the proportion of Taiwan’s total trade volume as a result of the policy. This paper aims to assess the performance of Taiwan-Malaysia trades in the context of NSP initiatives and elucidate how the soft power that Taiwan has implemented in Malaysia since the 1950s contributed to such an outcome. The trading outcomes between Taiwan and Malaysia indicate that Taiwan did not receive substantial support from the entities it targeted with its soft power initiatives. This suggests that the China complex within the Chinese ethnic population in Malaysia is challenging to uproot due to their historical and cultural ties with China. Keywords: New Southbound Policy, Malaysia, Taiwan, China, soft power

Unpacking Taiwan’s ‘People-Centred’ New Southbound Policy in Indonesia: A Transnational Perspective

Almost eight years since the start of Taiwan’s people-centred New Southbound Policy (NSP) in 2016, various discussions have arisen regarding the policy’s efficacy in enhancing Taiwan’s external relations with targeted countries in the Indo-Pacific region. Most scholars have primarily addressed this policy from a state-centric perspective, focusing on the impact of the policy on bilateral interstate relations. Contrary to the existing approach, this article employs a transnational perspective by looking at the practice and success of the policy from both state and non-state level analysis. The use of this approach gives a comprehensive understanding of the nature of the NSP and offers an alternative view on the study of foreign policy by focusing on the transnational level of interactions. Drawing on the case study of the talent exchange program between Indonesia and Taiwan, this article argues that while the NSP has improved the number of student, worker and academic exchanges between Taiwan and Indonesia, the policy has not achieved its aim of extending ‘genuine two-way’ exchanges, resulting in asymmetrical relations that present challenges to the overall achievement of the NSP. Keywords: New Southbound Policy, transnational politics, foreign policy, Taiwan, Indonesia. *

Reporting Public Diplomacy at Home: Taiwanese Media News Coverage of the New Southbound Policy

Public diplomacy is about attracting foreign public attention; however, domestic public support is no less critical. The domestic public's support and understanding are equally essential to diplomatic activities abroad, and it depends on the information they receive about the policy. When the Taiwanese government claims that NSP (New Southbound Policy) received positive support from the public, how do they make those claims? What kind of information about the NSP is received by the Taiwanese public? This study analyzes the NSP-related news in Taiwanese media to answer this question. It focuses on Liberty Times Network (LTN) and United Daily News (UDN) coverage of the NSP since 2016. The text and sentiment analysis of their reports show that although they have different political orientations, overall, both LTN and UDN are generally positive in their reporting on NSP, although UDN is more critical. These results indicate that media polarization occurred in the report, sentiment analysis shows that the difference was insignificant. This situation may indicate that in the case of the NSP case, media polarization in Taiwan is not in effect for shaping public opinion. Keywords: news, media, public, diplomacy, nsp.

Views and Perceptions of Indonesia among the Second-Generation of Taiwanese-Indonesians after the New Southbound Policy (NSP)

Taiwan is a multicultural country. In addition to its diverse local communities, Taiwan is home to many migrants, including intermarriage migrants between Taiwanese men and Southeast Asian women. The intermarriage and second generation, which are children born from intermarriage families, created some social integration issues in Taiwanese society. This is because many Taiwanese have a prejudice against people from Southeast Asia, as most of them initially worked in Taiwan as migrant workers. The implementation of Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy (NSP) offers some opportunities for migrants to be noticeable. The second generation from this intermarriage also has the opportunity and privilege under the NSP policy. This research is based on a study of the views of the second generation of Taiwanese-Indonesian intermarriage families, particularly on their mothers’ culture after the implementation of NSP. This paper argues that the second generation, particularly from Taiwanese- Indonesian intermarriage families, experience a struggle to comprehend their identities within Taiwanese society and their perceptions of the implementation of NSP. The interview method was conducted to delve into the feelings of the Taiwanese-Indonesian second-generation children. Keywords: migrants, intermarriage, second generation, Taiwan, NSP. * Yufita

Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy and Disaster Preparedness Cooperation: The Cross-Sectoral Partnership in Practice

Natural disasters are common challenges faced by Asian countries and seriously threaten people’s lives and social stability. Therefore, more adequate regional cooperation is needed to jointly respond. As Taiwan has actively promoted the people-centered New Southbound Policy (NSP) since 2016, various initiatives and plans to strengthen social resilience and common interests have been implemented one after another. Among them, the NSP cooperation with specific focus on disaster prevention and HADR is of specific importance. The initiative is a positive and pragmatic move to promote partnership between Taiwan and its neighboring countries. This article delineates the common challenges and threats facing the Asian region - natural disasters. It - with the analysis of how the NSP serves as a facilitator for Taiwan’s cooperation with partner countries in disaster prevention thereby fostering forge resilient partnerships. In fact, academic research on this critical topic remains relatively scarce. Since the NSP’s cooperation on disaster preparedness encompasses the cross-sectoral partnership, mirroring the essence of the identical to the P-P-P-P modality. This aspect merits thorough investigation and deeper exploration, it is indeed worthy of in-depth investigation. Hence, this article is structured into four parts. The first part works as the introduction, the second part delves into introduces the rationale behind the NSP, focusing on that is, the P-P-P-P cross-sectoral partnership., while the third part addresses how the

Introduction: Southeast Asia and Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy (NSP)

Welcomed to the December 2023 Issue of International Journal of China Studies (IJCS) in 2023. Unlike the previous June 2023 Issue, this is the first Special Issue published under the watch of the new Editorial Board of IJCS. As part of IJCS’ agenda to feature current and pressing issues revolving around the Greater China region, we are encouraged by the great interests surrounding Taiwan and its international roles to run a Special Issue pertaining to the island nation’s relations with Southeast Asia. Given such unprecedented development, this Special Issue is deliberated with the two following objectives.

Geopolitical multiculturalism in East Asia

AbstractIn this research note, I expand the discussion on multicultural policies in East Asia by proposing the concept of ‘geopolitical multiculturalism’. It describes that the receiving state promotes multiculturalism or pro‐immigrant programmes and discourses to enhance the nation's global standing, regional importance, economic development, and geopolitical security. East Asian countries serve as illustrative examples of this concept, as their substantial immigrant populations are relatively recent, and the development of multicultural programmes is closely tied to international influence. I will first elaborate on three approaches to geopolitical multiculturalism, followed by a detailed analysis of Taiwan's case, including the recent implementation of the New Southbound Policy. I draw conclusions regarding the implications and potential applications of this concept for future research.

Soft Power as a Perspective for Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy

Taiwan, being a small country with a distinctive geopolitical position and a complicated connection with the Mainland, places significant importance on the utilization of soft power as a means to enhance its influence both regionally and globally. Since 2016, under the leadership of Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan's New Southbound Policy (NSP) has presented fresh opportunities for enhancing its collaborative ties with target nations. This initiative reflects Taiwan's aspirations to establish a reputable presence and effectively project its influence within the region, thereby showcasing its capabilities on an international level. From the perspective of soft power, the NSP is regarded as an important endeavor undertaken by the Tsai government to strengthen Taiwan's worldwide presence and promote its ideals at both regional and global levels. In addition to the initial accomplishments attained subsequent to the implementation of the policy, Taiwan is confronted with numerous challenges that necessitate the government to engage in strategic calculations in order to strike a balance between its interests and the policy’s objectives.

‘I am very good at my work!’ A narrative inquiry of Southeast Asian marriage migrants’ identity negotiations through their work

ABSTRACT The majority of applied linguistics research on intra-Asia marriage migrants has focused on their negotiations of ethnic gender identities in the home and educational arenas. Little is known about their experiences as workers in the host society. Drawing on the case of Taiwan, this paper examines how Southeast Asian marriage migrants negotiate identities through work. Drawing on positioning theory and adopting a narrative approach, this study analyzed in-depth interviews with eleven marriage migrants to understand how they represent self and other through narrating work experiences and how their work experiences and identity negotiations are interconnected with shifting representations of marriage migrants in Taiwan – from ‘social problems’ to ‘social assets’ under the recent New Southbound Policy, aimed to cultivate economic ties with ASEAN countries. In their work stories, they are competent, committed workers and valuable bilingual speakers, who actively harness their linguistic capital for newly available language-related jobs. While encountering occasional discrimination at work, they are, however, not passive victims, but agentive individuals who confront ethnicised gender inequality.

Conceptualising Taiwan’s Soft Power Projection in its ‘New Southbound Policy’

This paper examines Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy (NSP-T) from a soft power conceptual perspective. It traces the origins of the NSP-T before the Tsai Ing-wen administration came into power in 2016 and then discusses the NSP-T’s subsequent implementation. Through an overview of the earlier ‘Go South Policy’ (GSP) during the administrations of Lee Teng-hui, Chen Shui-bian and Ma Ying-jeou (1994–2016), this paper finds that soft power was not institutionalised in the policy despite it being a prevalent concept, and repeatedly propagated by successive Taiwanese presidents for their foreign policy goals. Soft power is now outlined as the ‘overarching link’ connecting Taiwan and the NSP-T countries for the attainment of the former’s three strategic aims ─ identifying a new direction and driving force for a new stage of Taiwan’s economic development, redefining Taiwan’s important role in regional development and creating future value for Taiwan’s engagements in the region. This article seeks to extrapolate how soft power contributes to the achievement of the three policy visions in Southeast Asia. Through assessments of NSP-T cooperation programmes and strategies in its six sectors of medical care, agriculture, manufacturing, tourism, education and civil society, an analytical model is introduced to explain Taiwan’s soft power projection in Southeast Asia.

Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy in Southeast Asia and the ‘China Factor’: Deepening Regional Integration Amid New Reality

Launched by President Tsai Ing-wen in 2016, the New Southbound Policy (NSP-T) aims to enhance cooperation and exchange between Taiwan and 18 countries in Southeast Asia, South Asia and Australasia. The policy is a concerted effort designed to expand Taiwan’s presence across these broad regions by leveraging Taiwan’s cultural, educational, technological and economic resources. There is no doubt that the NSP-T has yielded results in terms of economic cooperation and people-to-people exchanges between Taipei and Southeast Asia. However, with Beijing pushing forward its own agenda and, at the same time, asserting more pressure on Taiwan, there are questions about how Taiwan should respond. This article argues that China, through its enormous economic influence and constant consolidation of ‘One China Policy’ in Southeast Asia has limited the success and effectiveness of the NSP-T in the region. The impact of this ‘China Factor’ has, however, differed among Southeast Asian countries due to their distinct relationships with China. This article also argues that while China’s economic diplomacy has earned Beijing considerable influence in the region, that influence has not been translated into Southeast Asian support for its foreign policies, principles nor values – leaving Taiwan with rooms to maneuver its strategic space in the region. Therefore, several policy directions, clusters and implementations have been identified for Taiwan’s consideration in order to enhance existing Taiwan-ASEAN relations. These are: the visible and viable institutionalisation of the NSP-T; addressing existing and emerging issues in the NSP-T; and the consolidation of Taiwan-ASEAN long term connectivity.

Situating India in Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy

The widening rift between the United States and China, the former’s efforts to strengthen ties with partners in Asia, China’s aggressive postures and its poaching of Taiwan’s remaining diplomatic allies have opened up new possibilities for Taiwan’s external engagement. The inclination of the Democratic Progressive Party-led government in Taiwan to forge regional partnerships led it to develop its flagship foreign policy – the New Southbound Policy (NSP-T) and to proactively look towards India. Amid the changing geopolitical situation, the regional positions and roles of India and Taiwan have undergone a transformation and the two states’ interests in advancing relations have become visible. While NSP-T represents a concrete decision from Taiwan’s side to push outwards, the deterioration in India’s relations with China, particularly since the border clashes at Galwan in 2020, along with India’s own growing role in the region, could be categorised as pull factors. This article offers an Indian perspective on India’s place in the NSP-T. It argues that China’s increasing assertiveness and the possibility of mutual economic benefits are the main factors driving Taiwan-India relations and that the NSP-T is facilitating the cooperation and advancement in the ties.

Navigating the Politics of Soft Power: Taiwan and Korea’s Regional Approach in Comparison

ABSTRACT This article compares the ways Taiwan and South Korea have navigated the politics of soft power to gradually exert their influence in South and Southeast Asia. It then analyses Taiwan's self-declared ‘warm power' practices. The article is divided into five parts. The first highlights the conceptual evolution of soft power and new policy practices in Asia. The second discusses the transformation and strengthening from soft power to warm power. The third introduces South Korea's New Southern Policy through the lens of soft power. The fourth presents Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy, and the conclusion compares the impact and prospects of the two.

Reassessing Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy: Does it Really Work?

The research purpose of this article is to explore and analyze the reason and impact of Taiwan's "New Southbound Policy". The results of the study show that although Tsai Ing-wen has always insisted on promoting the development of the "New Southbound Policy" since she came to power in 2016 and hopes to use it to reduce the high economic dependence on mainland China and expand Taiwan's political survival space on the international stage, but in essence, the "New Southbound Policy" did not achieve Tsai Ing-wen's original goal. On the contrary, the economic ties between Taiwan and the mainland are still deepening and consolidating. From a certain perspective, the implementation of the "New Southbound Policy" has indeed promoted Taiwan's economy toward diversification and has achieved multi-level economic development. However, based on the huge economic volume of mainland China, as mainland China releases the control of the Covid-19 epidemic, many companies in Taiwan will not be able to ignore the re-communication and connection with the mainland economy. The economic ties between the two sides will remain close for a long time to come.