Backlash in the West against Chinese political interference has eased the path for Taiwan’s diplomatic outreach, the Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) said in a written report submitted to the legislature yesterday.
The report cited council Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) as saying that global democracies face an unprecedented challenge from authoritarian China and Russia, resulting in policy changes that benefited the council’s diplomatic efforts.
Specifically, Taiwanese immigrant groups met less resistance from their Chinese counterparts following many Western nations’ expulsion of Confucius Institutes, overseas Chinese police stations, and Beijing’s other conduits for political and ideological interference, Hsu said.
Photo: CNA
The council estimated that there were 2 million overseas-based Taiwanese, 6,000 overseas Taiwanese groups and 1,000 Taiwan schools serving the nation’s overseas communities as of last year, the report said.
These people and entities served a key role in bridging Taiwan with the rest of the world, as Taiwanese immigrants possess a freedom of action that the nation’s formal diplomatic mechanisms do not, it said.
Last year, the council and overseas Taiwanese groups jointly organized 111 events that were attended by a combined 106,000 people in 46 areas around the world, it said.
The events helped facilitate Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the WHO and other global cooperative frameworks in health, economics, culture and education, the council said.
The Taiwan Day event at Ruhr-Universitat-Bochum and the AHOJ.Festival cultural event in Zittau, Germany, as well as the participation of Taiwanese at South Australia state’s Multicultural Festival and the Willoughby Spring Fair in New South Wales state, were among the events the council helped to bring about, it said.
Academic-corporate programs for overseas Taiwanese to study and work in Taiwan attracted 7,450 participants, the council said.
The council would continue to be a voice for the nation, while also assisting Taiwanese entrepreneurs abroad to develop the semiconductor, artificial intelligence, defense, security and surveillance, and next-generation communications industries, it added.
Additional reporting by CNA
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