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
Two sets of economic data released last week by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) have drawn mixed reactions from the public: One on the nation’s economic performance in the first quarter of the year and the other on Taiwan’s household wealth distribution in 2021. GDP growth for the first quarter was faster than expected, at 6.51 percent year-on-year, an acceleration from the previous quarter’s 4.93 percent and higher than the agency’s February estimate of 5.92 percent. It was also the highest growth since the second quarter of 2021, when the economy expanded 8.07 percent, DGBAS data showed. The growth
In the intricate ballet of geopolitics, names signify more than mere identification: They embody history, culture and sovereignty. The recent decision by China to refer to Arunachal Pradesh as “Tsang Nan” or South Tibet, and to rename Tibet as “Xizang,” is a strategic move that extends beyond cartography into the realm of diplomatic signaling. This op-ed explores the implications of these actions and India’s potential response. Names are potent symbols in international relations, encapsulating the essence of a nation’s stance on territorial disputes. China’s choice to rename regions within Indian territory is not merely a linguistic exercise, but a symbolic assertion
More than seven months into the armed conflict in Gaza, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to take “immediate and effective measures” to protect Palestinians in Gaza from the risk of genocide following a case brought by South Africa regarding Israel’s breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention. The international community, including Amnesty International, called for an immediate ceasefire by all parties to prevent further loss of civilian lives and to ensure access to life-saving aid. Several protests have been organized around the world, including at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and many other universities in the US.
Every day since Oct. 7 last year, the world has watched an unprecedented wave of violence rain down on Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories — more than 200 days of constant suffering and death in Gaza with just a seven-day pause. Many of us in the American expatriate community in Taiwan have been watching this tragedy unfold in horror. We know we are implicated with every US-made “dumb” bomb dropped on a civilian target and by the diplomatic cover our government gives to the Israeli government, which has only gotten more extreme with such impunity. Meantime, multicultural coalitions of US