Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

As Taiwan’s international space remains constrained, formal government-to-government cooperation is often infeasible. Consequently, the utilization of alternative channels of international engagement, such as track II diplomacy or subnational diplomacy, remains key for Taiwan’s idiosyncratic, people-oriented strategy for global engagement.

On the quinquennial of the New Southbound Policy, and amid a newfound openness between Taiwan and Europe, it is timely to revisit the question of international subjectivity of Taiwanese cities and consider the role they can play in the nation’s quest to expand its international space.

The government’s reaction of withdrawing its economic and technical assistance from any country that decides to switch ties from Taiwan to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is completely understandable, but is punishing scholarship students for the decisions that their governments made the right thing to do?

Taiwanese taxpayers cannot be asked to continue to support cooperation projects in countries that chose to break their relationship with Taiwan. Those countries are sure to receive more than enough economic incentives from the PRC government.