The Ministry of Health and Welfare on Friday last week announced that the government is putting together a national team of medical professionals from National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH), National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) Hospital, Taipei Veterans General Hospital and three other medical centers, and would assign its members to six countries covered by the New Southbound Policy.
Before the end of this year, a Taiwanese medical center is to be established in each of these countries.
The policy focuses on mutual medical benefits as it moves in to neighboring countries, in sharp contrast to China’s predatory Belt and Road Initiative, which takes jobs from local residents. President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) proposal to use a national team to push the policy forward corresponds with this focus.
Attention should be paid to whether the medical centers are in the best possible location and make the best use of the Taiwanese medical staff.
NCKU is widely recognized for its prestigious Center for Vietnamese Studies, chaired by professor Wi-Vun Taiffalo Chiung (蔣為文) from the Department of Taiwanese Literature, who is well-versed in Vietnamese. Although the center has established close ties with two top Vietnamese universities — Vietnam National University in Hanoi and Vietnam National University in Ho Chi Minh City — the NCKU hospital staff in the national medical team was not asked to establish the medical center in Vietnam.
This raises questions about the extent of resource integration between higher education and medical institutions, and whether the government would allow pro-Taiwan academics rather than pro-China academics in the six countries to assist Taiwan’s southbound medical advancement.
Students and doctors from the National Defense Medical Center (NDMC) and Tri-Service General Hospital are also not included in the national medical team. Students and doctors in the military medical education system holding military status are not legally allowed to travel to China, but these restrictions do not apply to the countries covered by the policy.
The excessively pro-China foreign policy of former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration made it impossible for outstanding talent from the military medical system to represent Taiwan abroad.
Having lectured and delivered speeches at the NDMC many times, I am deeply impressed by the devotion and enthusiasm that members of its volunteer group Rumahku — meaning “my home” in Indonesian — have for the cultures of South Asian and Southeast Asian countries and their willingness to represent Taiwan abroad.
If military medical students familiar with the languages and cultures of Southeast Asian countries were allowed to complete their internships in the medical centers to be established under the policy, they would be able to represent Taiwan abroad and fulfill their responsibility of defending the nation, while at the same time dispelling the groundless allegations that the government is paying little attention to soldiers and undervalues the military.
Hopefully the ministry and other government authorities will increase their integration efforts so that personnel from both higher education and military institutions can be a part of this major national policy.
The government must not make it impossible for the experts, academics and students who are willing to serve the nation to participate in the New Southbound Policy.
Kimyung Keng, an Indonesian Taiwanese, is an assistant professor and the recipient of the Outstanding Young Taiwanese of 2016 award.
Translated by Chang Ho-ming
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
I have heard people equate the government’s stance on resisting forced unification with China or the conditional reinstatement of the military court system with the rise of the Nazis before World War II. The comparison is absurd. There is no meaningful parallel between the government and Nazi Germany, nor does such a mindset exist within the general public in Taiwan. It is important to remember that the German public bore some responsibility for the horrors of the Holocaust. Post-World War II Germany’s transitional justice efforts were rooted in a national reckoning and introspection. Many Jews were sent to concentration camps not
RSS