Taiwan struggles to win over Chinese students

August 11, 2013 1:45 pm

Taiwan struggles to win over Chinese students

By Sarah Mishkin in Taipei

When Taiwan opened its universities to mainland Chinese students two years ago, many in the Taipei government hoped the decision might help the small democracy to influence its authoritarian neighbour. Many of the hundreds of mainland students who have since arrived say their studies have been an eye-opening look at how democracy and an open civil dialogue can work in Chinese society. But Taiwan’s anxiety about its growing economic dependence on China, which has never relinquished its claim to the island, is hampering its soft power push, say students and professors.“Taiwan should be confident about an open-door policy towards Chinese students but our government . . . is afraid of opening the door,” says Yang Ching-Yao, a professor who studies educational exchanges.

Taiwan’s boisterous political scene is watched by many in China, partly because it provides a close-to-home yet indirect way to discuss broader questions of governance, political analysts say. The ferocity of the island’s two-party system leads to moments of high drama. China’s media followed Taiwan’s presidential election last year and many online bloggers particularly admired the defeated candidate’s eloquent concession speech.

“The language is important. If you hear all this in English, you know it’s happening in the US – it’s another world. But if it’s happening in Taiwan, [that] will make us think, why not us?” says Michael Li, a 23-year-old from Hangzhou studying political science in Taipei.

The problem, students say, is that while Taiwan encourages Chinese nationals to come, it also has strict curbs that block them from working, taking government grants, or staying there after graduating.

The restrictions, Mr Li says, are “a very serious discouragement for Chinese students”. It seems Taiwan “wasn’t fully prepared to have us here”, he adds.

The US, UK and other countries also place limits on foreign students staying after graduation or working on sensitive research projects. But Beijing’s continuing sovereignty claim over Taiwan means that worries there about Chinese nationals trying to immigrate, or taking jobs from locals, resonate far deeper. Those worries about Chinese influence have persisted amid the efforts of Ma Ying-jeou, Taiwan’s president since 2008, to deepen ties with Beijing. Better relations and more trade, the president says, will reduce tensions and boost Taiwan’s economy.

China is already Taiwan’s largest trade partner. The two countries have signed agreements to boost bilateral trade and investment.

Taiwan opened the door to Chinese tourists and students as part of those deals. Officials say the decision was intended to boost the revenues of its shops and universities and to show the visitors what life is like on an island they had for decades been all but banned from visiting, while hearing descriptions of a chaotic place whose parliament frequently descended into brawls. With Taiwan’s economy and military dwarfed by China, Professor Yang says “Taiwan has only one key point it can compete with China and that is our soft power”.

Last year, 951 Chinese students enrolled in degree programmes in Taiwan, up from 918 in 2011, the first year they were allowed in. This year officials expect about 2,000, says Huang Pi-twan, Taiwan’s deputy minister of education.

Students say their peers’ views on Taiwan and its political system can be complicated. One doctoral student says Taiwan is losing its competitiveness as students face only a small fraction of the pressure to study that their counterparts do in China. Two students in her programme dropped out because of the quality of the teaching and the restrictions on working, she says.

But others speak highly of their time on the island. “When I go back to China, I will tell the people that we should be the ones to make the choices about our future,” says Tsai Bo-Yi, a third-year student writing a book about Taiwan’s social movements.

Fist fights in Taiwan’s parliament still happen and the television news is freer than in China but not as high-quality as she expected. Nonetheless, she says: “The Taiwanese government treats their people as idiots but the Chinese government treats their people as if they are not people.”