Looking to regional neighbors for closer trade relationships is bearing fruit

Nikkei Asian Review
Date: October 4, 2019
By: Humphrey Hawksley

Long menaced by its larger neighbor, Taiwan's efforts to shift away from its reliance on China by

increasing trade instead with other regional partners are beginning to pay both economic and political dividends.

Known as the New Southbound Policy, the government of President Tsai Ing-wen is encouraging and subsidizing Taiwanese companies to move out of China and set up operations throughout the Indo-Pacific.

Since Tsai's Democratic Progressive Party came to office in 2016 on a more anti-China platform, relations between the two countries have become frosty. In its attempts to isolate Taiwan, China has used military exercises, restrictions on tourism and persuasion — of one kind or another — of Taipei's allies to end diplomatic recognition in favor of Beijing.

Taiwan has responded by forging closer relationships with governments in the area and now sees itself as a key contributor to the U.S.-led policy to secure a "free and open Indo-Pacific."
[FULL  STORY]