Mon, Jul 07, 2014 page8

• Think tanks key to development

  • By Wang Jenn-hwan 王振寰
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  China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) Minister Zhang Zhijun’s (張志軍) trip to Taiwan is over. Regrettably, due to certain incidents in the south, some visits had to be canceled, but all in all, Zhang’s focus on listening to different sections of Taiwanese society — small and medium-sized enterprises, the middle classes, mid to low-income earners and the younger generation — demonstrates that China’s Taiwan policy seems to have changed, and that think tanks in China have a better understanding of the situation in Taiwan.

  In Taiwan itself, if there exists any real understanding or consensus on how best to deal with China or how to exploit current tensions between the US and China to achieve the best outcome, it has been lost in the cacophony of diverse voices clamoring to be heard.

  Cross-strait relations have already reached the point at which a debate on how we proceed is now absolutely imperative. Our economy has virtually become consolidated into that of China, and sooner or later, we are going to have to face the political questions. It is no longer sufficient to suppose we can only look into the economic issues, such as regional economic integration or the cross-strait service trade or trade in goods agreements, to the exclusion of political issues or international and diplomatic relations.

  We cannot delay more fully understanding our relationship with China, and how to maintain our national status and dignity internationally, any longer.

  Every major country in the world has a mix of think tanks researching and debating national development strategy. Taiwan lacks this kind of network. China has many think tanks specifically interested in Taiwan, including the TAO’s own Department of Research, the China Institute of International Studies under the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the China Institutes Of Contemporary International Relations under the Chinese Ministry of State Security, the National Taiwan Research Association, the United Front’s National Taiwan Research Association and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of Taiwan Studies. And that is just the government affiliated ones. The number of people in China researching Taiwan is measured in the thousands.

  In Taiwan, National Chengchi University’s Center for Chinese Studies (CCS) used to be the think tank focused on China, while China-related research and education was the task of the China research institutes based in universities throughout the country. However, after the lifting of martial law, the resources of national security agencies were pulled out of universities, leading to a marked decline in manpower and funding available to the institute. In addition, National Chengchi is a university, and not organized to operate as a think tank, so the CCS could no longer function as one.

  There has also been a sharp drop in the number of researchers studying China: Fewer are registering for the examinations as the perception is that there are simply too few positions to pursue in this field. Preposterously enough, we seem as a nation to be far less concerned about China research now than in the past, even though China affects our everyday lives and the direction this country will take in the future, whereas research into Taiwan within China continues to grow, both in terms of the sheer number of people engaged in this research and the material resources to which they have access.

  It is of paramount importance that the government address this shortfall of think tanks focused on China. Perhaps the government feels that each department has its own research budget allocation with which to commission academics’ individual studies, but projects like this are generally aimed more at the short-term, and lack both a strategic perspective for development in the long-term and the type of policy orientation that the commissioning department must have.

  This kind of short-term research is of little use for the complex issues concerning foreign relations and cross-strait politics. It is no small concern that, while other countries around the world value the contribution of think tanks to national development and international relations, Taiwan is alone in not having the structure in place to devise a long-term strategy to address these complex issues.

  After the lifting of martial law, the country was unexpectedly transformed into a democracy, in which all major events were suddenly influenced by elections and decided in the national legislature. There was no long-term strategy, and there was not even a unified standpoint on how to handle foreign policy.

  The government should seriously consider reviewing its approach to think tanks, restart them and work hard to promote policy research in these institutions so that they can contribute to research for long-term national development. It would also be of considerable benefit if major corporations undertook to support these think tanks financially.

  Some of the world’s foremost think tanks, such as the Brookings Institution, the Heritage Foundation, the Rand Corp and the Center for Strategic and International Studies -— in the US — were all established through private donations, and their research informs national government decisions and foreign policy.

  In other countries, too, major corporations have founded think tanks that have influence over government decisions. In South Korea, for example, both Samsung Group and LG Electronics have their own economic research institutes.

  Taiwanese companies should follow the example of companies in the West and in South Korea, and support think tanks here to undertake government policy research for the sake of Taiwan’s long-term development. This would be something of which they could truly be proud.

  Wang Jenn-hwan is the director of the Center for Chinese Studies in National Chengchi University.

  Translated by Paul Cooper
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