 "Taiwan inaugurates new office in Mumbai: What we know about ties between Taipei and New Delhi?")
Taiwan has opened a new office in Mumbai. And China is upset.
Taiwan has inaugurated the Taipei Economic and Cultural Center (TECC) in Mumbai.
This is the country’s third office in India.
Taiwan earlier opened a TECC in New Delhi in 1995 and a TECC in Chennai in 2012.
China has released a statement objecting to the development.
“China opposes any countries with ties with China to engage in any form of official contacts with Taiwan,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Taiwan split from China amid civil war in 1949, however, Beijing continues to regard the island of 23 million with its high-tech economy as Chinese territory.
It has vowed to take Taiwan by military force if necessary.
But what relationship does India share with Taiwan?
Let’s take a closer look:
Diplomatic relations
India does not have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
India broke off diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1950 after it recognised the People’s Republic of China.
However India continued to maintain unofficial ties with Taiwan.
Though India has no embassies in Taiwan, it did established the India Taipei Association (ITA) headed by a senior diplomat in 1995.
The ITA is basically empowered to provide consular and passport services.
Taiwan, in turn, established the aforementioned TECC in New Delhi that same year.
New Delhi was previously following the ‘one-China policy’ propagated by Washington.
However, it has not done so in recent years.
This is because in 2010, when Chinese premier Wen Jiabao’s visited, India was upset because Beijing issued ‘stapled visas’ instead of normal visas for residents of Jammu and Kashmir travelling to China.
However, things have changed since Narendra Modi came to power.
In 2014, when Modi was sworn in as prime minister, he invited Taiwan’s Ambassador Chung-Kwang Tien to the ceremony.
India has taken a tougher line on Taiwan since the Galwan clashes of 2020.
As per Indian Express, New Delhi chose diplomat Gourangalal Das as its envoy in Taipei that year.
In May 2020, BJP’s two MPs, Meenakshi Lekhi and Rahul Kaswan, attended the swearing-in ceremony of Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen virtually.
A second sign to Beijing was when Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoling the death of former Taiwan president Lee Teng-hui in August 2020, called him ‘Mr Democracy’.
Taiwan’s previous presiden, Tsai Ing-wen was Lee’s protégé.
Trade
Two-way trade between India and Taiwan stood at $10.1 billion during the fiscal year ending in March 2024.
The total investment of Taiwanese firms in India has crossed $4 billion.
This ranges from footwear, machinery, automobile components to petrochemical and ICT products.
India is Taiwan’s 16th largest training partner.
Bilateral trade between India and Taiwan was at around $8.22 billion in 2023.
India exported goods worth $2.21 billion To Taiwan in 2023.
Taiwan, on the other hand, exported goods worth $6 billion to India in 2023.
This makes New Delhi Taiwan’s 12th largest export market.
Around Taiwanese businesses have invested in electronics, information and communication technology, petrochemicals, steel, shipping, footwear manufacturing, automotive and motorcycle components, finance, and construction industries in India as of February 2024.
Trade conflict between the United States and China drove up Taiwan’s foreign direct investment (FDI) in India to more than $665 million from 2018 to 2023, said James Huang, chairman of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council.
That compares favourably to the nearly $277 million investment in India from 2006 to 2017, Huang added.
India and Taiwan in 2024 signed a migration and mobility agreement that will facilitate the employment of Indian workers several sectors.
India and Taiwan in 2018 had signed a bilateral investment agreement to encourage trade between the two sides.
Diaspora and education
As per The Print, India has around 5000 expatriates in Taiwan.
Most of these are white-collar working professionals.
India has around 3,000 students in Taiwan.
Over 500 students have taken up a scholarship offered by the Taiwanese government.
In 2019, Foundation for International Cooperation in Higher Education of Taiwan signed an MOU with Association of Indian Universities.
Under this agreement, the two countries will recognise each other’s academic degrees and certificates.
There are 31 Taiwan Education Centers (TEC) across various universities in India.
A number of teachers are also offering lessons in Mandarin.
Senior Indian officials, tourism promoters and employees working for Taiwan firms in India often come to these TECs.
Science and technology
Taiwan’s Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp partnered this year with India’s Tata Group to build the first semiconductor fabrication facility in western Gujarat state, relying on a $10-billion incentive scheme.
As per Business Standard, India is just one of the many nations which relies on Taiwan for a steady supply of semiconductors.
Taiwan makes 90 per cent of the world’s most advanced chips and 70 per cent of smartphone chipsets.
The TECC and ITA in 2007 signed an MOU on Scientific and Technological Cooperation.
India and Taiwan hold bilateral joint meetings and academic seminars every year.
A total of 130 projects and joint proposals have been carried out till January 2024, while 27 seminars have been held bilaterally.
India and Taiwan cooperate in a number of fields including agriculture and food science; new material for sustainable energy and storage devices; health care including functional genomics, drug development and biomedical devices; earth, atmosphere and ocean sciences including disaster management & digital technology for societal applications and cloud computing.
Culture
Cultural ties between the two nations have been on upswing in recent years.
Taiwan’s Martin Musa Musaubach was invited to perform fusion music at IIT-Mumbai.
The Taiwan Film Festival was held in Mumbai in December 2022 and December 2023.
The Ming Hwa Yuan Arts & Cultural Group performed at the International Theatre Festival of Kerala (ITFoK) in February, 2023.
The Zhen Yun Lin Ge Puppet Theater was invited by the Indian Council of Cultural Relations to attend the 9th Indo-International Dance & Music Festival in October 2023.
What do experts say?
That growing tension with China made India somewhat change its China Policy.
As C Raja Mohan wrote for the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), “Three factors have begun to drive important changes in India’s policy towards Taiwan. The first was the steady deterioration in India’s relations with China, despite Modi’s strong commitment to advancing bilateral relations with Beijing. The military crises on the China border during Modi’s tenure – 2014, 2017 and 2020 – created the grounds for fresh thinking on China and related issues.”
Mohan also noted growing tension between Washington and Beijing as another reason for the change.
“Finally, as India embarks on a more determined policy to promote manufacturing in India, Taiwan is emerging as an important partner. Meanwhile, Taiwan is trying to reduce its economic exposure in China and explore new possibilities elsewhere,” Mohan wrote.
Others say it is time India reconsidered its Taiwan policy.
_Indian Expres_s quoted Sana Hashmi, a visiting fellow at the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation in Taipei, as writing in a paper for the Institute of South Asian Studies, “Any significant development in India-Taiwan relations runs the risk of meeting with a likely stern reaction from Beijing. This explains India’s steady, albeit slow, outreach to Taiwan. Given that India-China relations are not likely to witness a return to normalcy in the near future, India should consider adopting a bold, comprehensive and long-term approach to engage Taiwan.”
“While there are compelling reasons for India and Taiwan to look towards each other, much of the relationship has been episodic, characterised by momentary highs. The relations have been suffering from divergent approaches, unrealistic expectations, and the resultant missed opportunities.”
With inputs from agencies
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