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TAEF BRIEF
July 3 , 2021
No. 71 |
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CONTENT
-TAEF Updates
-TAEF Commentaries
-Consortium Updates
-New Southbound Policy News
-Regional Headlines |
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Future of Work for the Asian Youth - Country Profile : Vietnam |
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July 1
, 2021
Summertime is usually when fresh graduates look for their first jobs. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has heavily impacted the labor market. This is the case in Taiwan, but also in its neighboring countries, including Vietnam.
Since the end of 2020, TAEF and Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Japan have worked together to organize a series of webinars entitled “The Future of Work for the Asian Youth”, presenting case studies on Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam.
The series' final country profile on Vietnam has just been released and provided a deeper analysis on :
▪ Vietnam's demographics of the labor force, in particular, the youth ;
▪ the trend in the future of work for Vietnamese youth ;
▪ the challenges that Vietnamese youth face in the labor market
Read more
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Democracy in Action: Past and Present Movements in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Myanmar |
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June 28
, 2021
TAEF Chairman Dr. Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao was invited to be one of the panelists of a discussion on
“Democracy in Action: Past and Present Movements in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Myanmar.”, organized by The Sigur Center for Asian Studies of the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University (GWU).
With a focus on Taiwan’s democratic legacy and the role of the Dangwai journal in popular mobilization, Chairman Hsiao provided a comprehensive presentation on how the opposition magazines changed Taiwan's early democracy-making during the 1980s and 1990s and became the enlightenment and mobilization which initiated Taiwan's political liberalization and democratization.
Over this panel, Chairman Hsiao was in conversation with Kharis Templeman, Program Manager, Project on Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific, Stanford University, who presented “Changing Dynamics of the Democracy Movement in Hong Kong”, Christina Fink, Professor of Practice of International Affairs, GWU talking about “Understanding Myanmar’s Spring Revolution”, and the discussant Syaru Shirley Lin, Compton Visiting Professor in World Politics, University of Virginia Miller Center of Public Affairs.
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TAEF presented the New Southbound Policy to senior fellows in the US |
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June 23
, 2021
TAEF Executive Director Dr. Alan H. Yang was invited by George H. W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations to give a keynote speech entitled Taiwan's signature - New Southbound Policy (NSP).
Beyond its foundation in economy and trade, the NSP has become Taiwan’s comprehensive regional strategy in the Indo-Pacific thanks to its developments strongly related to people: health, agriculture, science & technology, culture, etc.
In March 2021, director Yang became a senior fellow of the George Bush China Foundation, making him the only scholar from Taiwan in the Foundation’s Fellows Network. Other senior fellows in the network are Dr. Rodger Baker, senior vice president of Strategic Analysis, Stratfor, Dr. Yawei Liu, China Program director of the Carter Center, Dr. Sebastien Peyrouse, research professor of Central Asia Program, The George Watshington University, etc.
Read more
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Global Taipei Dialogue X: Education and Taiwan's New Southbound Policy |
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June 23
, 2021
Co-hosted by Taiwan NextGen Foundation and Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation, Global Taipei Dialogue X focused on education exchanges under Taiwan's New Southbound Policy (NSP).
Within NSP, education has played an important role in talent cultivation and talent exchanges between Taiwan and NSP policy countries. From 2013 to 2020, the number of students from Southeast Asia studying in Taiwan tripled from 20,000 to 60,000. These students are expected to be the bridge between the two sides in order to enhance the mutual economic and people-to-people exchanges.
However, heading into its fifth year, the policy is now facing some challenges in the area of education in terms of resource distribution, care for recruited students, and policy accomplishment.
We are honored to have Mr. Wei-Xiang Huang, Director of Skills for U, and Dr. Sana Hashmi, TAEF visiting fellow to share their thoughts from perspectives of vocational education and academic exchanges.
Watch the event recording
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Five Years of the New Southbound Policy: An Assessment |
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June 28, 2021
- Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao, Chairman of Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation
- Alan H. Yang, Executive Director of Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation
2021 marks the fifth anniversary of the New Southbound Policy (NSP). In 2016, President Tsai Ing-wen administration launched the New Southbound Policy that is aimed at strengthening ties with 18 countries from South, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
Since its launch, Taiwan’s outreach in the region has been facilitated by the NSP, and the developments tell us that if given further thrust, the policy could become Taiwan’s comprehensive regional strategy in the Indo-Pacific.
To review the effectiveness of the policy, 11 central government units from foreign affairs, economy, education, agriculture, health & welfare, trade negotiations, transport, national development, overseas community affairs, ocean affairs, and veterans affairs, submitted their review of the NSP to the Foreign and National Defense Committee of the Legislative Yuan.
Despite COVID-19 pandemic impacting the implementation of several initiatives, the overall findings of the report signal that the policy has accrued gains vis-à-vis Taiwan’s external engagement. However, two of the legislators from Taiwan’s major opposition party, Kuomintang (KMT) unfairly criticized the policy and unnecessarily questioned the level of representation from the 11 ministries that were represented by the deputy heads in the review session.
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National Culture and Arts Foundation
Contemporary Horizons and Cultural Exchanges of Art Criticism in Taiwan |
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July 1, 2021
The latest issue of National Culture and Arts Foundation (NCAF)’s e-journal invited practitioners, critics, and researchers to analyze contemporary horizons and cultural exchanges of Taiwan’s art criticism through some of the most significant cases.
As a result of NCAF’s grants project on visual arts and art criticism, this issue invited previous grantees, including Chang Wen Hsuan, Ding-Liang Chen, Enkaryon Ang, and Kuan-Yu Chen, and members of the screening committee, including Kao Chien-Hui, Kao Jun-Honn, and Wang Sheng-Hung, to share their observations.
TAEF’s assistant research fellow Ding-Liang Chen contributed an essay titled “From Satellites to Undersea Cables: The Volumetric Politics of Transpacific Informatics.” Focusing on Philippine contemporary artwork, Cold War and contemporary literature, Asian American literature, and Guam poetry, this essay aimed to reveal the possibilities of re-writing the history of transpacific informatics through cultural productions that have been marginalized in art history.
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NEW SOUTHBOUND POLICY NEWS |
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Taiwan News
Taiwan's migrant workers scapegoated for spread of COVID
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July 3, 2021
Migrant workers in Taiwan have been exploited and treated as "scapegoats" for spreading COVID-19, a Taiwan-based Canadian reporter claims.
In early June, due to cluster infections, 202 of 249 confirmed cases in Miaoli County were migrant workers at high-tech factories. Locals accused workers of venturing out and spreading the coronavirus despite the Level 3 restrictions in place.
On June 7, the county government announced a lockdown for all migrant workers in the area, confining 22,952 people to their quarters except to go to work. The measure was condemned by local human rights groups.
The U.S. Department of State released a global report on Friday (July 2) on human trafficking. It said Taiwan meets the minimum standards but needs to improve labor laws to prevent exploitation.
Read more
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Nikkei Asia
Myanmar Military Warns Foreign Media to not Call It a 'Junta'
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June 30, 2021
Myanmar's Ministry of Information on Wednesday issued a warning to foreign media against calling the country's governing body since the Feb. 1 coup a "junta," "military junta" or "military council."
The military-led body, which controls government ministries, is called the State Administration Council (SAC) and is chaired by the commander in chief, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing. The military established the council on Feb. 2, a day after ousting the democratically elected government and detaining leaders including State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi.
In the announcement, published in the state-owned newspaper Global New Light of Myanmar, the ministry also stressed that the SAC "just controls various State duties in line with the provisions of the state of emergency" under the constitution, and the SAC is "not a coup d'etat government."
Read more
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BBC
China Pressure 'Undermining Australian Universities', Report Says
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June 29, 2021
Chinese pro-democracy students in Australia experience harassment and fear punishment if they speak out on sensitive issues, a new report says.
Human Rights Watch found such students feel surveilled in Australia, leading many to self-censor in classrooms.
Academics teaching China courses in the country say they have also felt pressure to censor themselves.
China's embassy in Canberra strongly rejected the report on Wednesday, calling it "biased".
It said Human Rights Watch had "decayed into a political tool for the West" and the group was "always biased on China".
The Australian government said it found the report "deeply concerning".
There has been growing concern about China's influence on local campuses in recent years, following a deterioration in relations between the two nations. Canberra is already investigating allegations of potential foreign interference.
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VOA
China to Challenge Australia Anti-dumping Measures at WTO
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China said on Thursday it had filed a lawsuit at the World Trade Organization challenging Australia’s anti-dumping measures on a range of goods, marking further escalation in tensions between the two countries.
The suit — regarding Chinese exports of train wheels, wind turbines and stainless-steel sinks — comes a week after Canberra challenged Beijing’s crippling tariffs on Australian wine exports.
It aims to “safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies,” Chinese commerce ministry spokesperson Gao Feng said at a regular briefing Thursday.
“We hope that Australia will take concrete actions to correct its wrong practices, avoid distortions in the trade of related products, and bring such trade back to the normal track as soon as possible.”
Australia has imposed tariffs on Chinese-built train wheels and wind turbines since 2019.
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