China’s lures fuel a sense of insecurity in Taiwan, but many resolvable economic and societal problems lie closer to home.
The News Lens
Date: 2018/04/09
By: Yuan-Ming Chiao
Photo Credit: Shutterstock / 達志影像
China’s “31 incentives” – a policy aimed at attracting Taiwan’s professionals through access to mainland cultural industries and university research funding – have provoked heated debate and accusations of attempts to accelerate the ongoing brain drain, but Taiwan itself may be equally complicit in its own loss of professional and academic talent.
Some media organizations have painted those who head to China as greedy, turncoat opportunists. The government itself has wagged its finger at Taiwanese professors, warning them that it is illegal to take up teaching positions at Chinese universities or to apply for government research grants, but thousands are already there, and more are certain to follow. If nothing is done, professionals will leave to find greener pastures in China or elsewhere.
These accusations might have held water when aimed at entrepreneurs who precipitated the gutting of domestic manufacturing decades ago. They are more problematic when leveled at homegrown doctorates, thousands of whom are unable to find work due to shrinking enrollment and campus closures. Those lucky enough to be given a rare teaching position are overburdened and underpaid.
If Taiwan continues to view China as the sole culprit of its economic stagnation, it not only limits discussion of solutions needed to confront Taiwan’s societal malaise, but also puts Taiwan firmly in the backseat of its own economic and political destiny.
[FULL STORY]
