Taiwan–Vietnam relations
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Taiwan–Vietnam relations are conducted on an unofficial level, as Hanoi adheres to a one-China policy and officially recognises the People's Republic of China only. However, this has not stopped bilateral visits and significant flows of migrants and investment capital between Taiwan and Vietnam.[1] Taiwan has been the largest source of foreign direct investment in Vietnam since 2006.[2]
Former relations with South Vietnam
South Vietnam, while it existed, recognised the Republic of China, due to the two countries' common anti-communist policies.[3] Ngo Dinh Diem's government established formal relations with Taipei in 1955. The relationship between the two governments was quite close, much better than Taiwan's relations with other decolonised countries in southeast Asia; Taipei received more presidential visits from South Vietnam than it did from any other country in the region.[4]
Students from South Vietnam studied in Taiwan, and Taipei provided material and logistical support to Saigon during the Vietnam War.[5] Taiwan sought to provide southeast Asian countries with its own hard-earned and bitter expertise in anti-communist affairs, and South Vietnam was a major recipient of these lessons. Taipei's ambassador to Saigon from 1964 until 1972 was Hu Lian, a Republic of China Army general with significant military experience during the Chinese Civil War.[6] Taipei and Saigon were even sister cities.[7] However relations were occasionally strained, especially over the issue of overseas Chinese in the country, many of whom held Republic of China nationality; Taipei was offended by Saigon's low estimates of their population, among other things.[8] Just before the fall of Saigon, South Vietnamese president Nguyen Van Thieu fled to Taipei, where his brother was serving as ambassador. An aircraft of Air Vietnam, the South Vietnamese airline, was abandoned at Taipei Songshan Airport and eventually became the property of a Taiwan-based airline.[5]
Collapse and reopening of relations
After the collapse of its South Vietnamese ally, Taipei initially maintained a policy of zero contact with Vietnam, not even private trade and postal contact. This left it ill-placed to take advantage of the rapid deterioration in relations between Hanoi and Beijing, even during the Sino-Vietnamese War and its aftermath. For its part, Vietnam, like other socialist states, expressed displeasure with Beijing in foreign relations by siding more closely with its rival in the Communist bloc, Moscow; for a socialist country to have contact with capitalist Taipei was unthinkable. However, in the late 1980s, as the Cold War thawed, contact between Hanoi and Taipei slowly resumed; indeed, observers saw this as one of the key events indicating the end of the Cold War in the region.[9]
Bilateral visits
In 2006, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company chairman Morris Chang flew to Hanoi as a special representative of then-President Chen Shui-bian to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. Unusually, Chang flew to Hanoi in Chen's presidential aircraft, a Boeing 737-800 operated by the Republic of China Air Force. The aircraft, which displays the flag of the Republic of China and its national emblem, had never before been permitted to land on the soil of a country with which Taiwan lacked formal relations.[10]
Investment
Foreign direct investment is an important policy tool of Taiwan; as Samuel Ku argues, Taipei uses "the island's economic resources in exchange for political gains from Vietnam".[11] In the early days of doi moi, Vietnam was very interested in learning from Taiwan's experiences with small and medium enterprises in order to alleviate Vietnam's own chronic shortages of consumer goods.[12] By 2006, Taiwan-based investors had poured US$8 billion into Vietnam, especially in equipment and buildings for conducting labour-intensive manufacturing in export processing zones. This scale of investment made Taiwan Vietnam's largest foreign investor.[5]
Movement of people
There are tens of thousands of Taiwanese expatriates in Vietnam and Vietnamese people in Taiwan.
References
- ↑ Dang 2011, p. 32
- ↑ Tran 2011, p. 16
- ↑ Ku 1999, p. 406
- ↑ Chen 2002, p. 62
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "Taiwan-Vietnam ties are looking better than ever", China Post, 2006-11-20, retrieved 2011-10-06
- ↑ Chen 2002, p. 60-61
- ↑ Chen 2002, p. 132
- ↑ An 1967
- ↑ Chen 2002, p. 65
- ↑ Engbarth, Dennis (2006-11-17), "Morris Chang arrives in Hanoi for APEC", Taiwan News, retrieved 2011-10-06
- ↑ Ku 1999, p. 405
- ↑ Chen 2002, p. 146
Bibliography
- An, Thomas S. (May 1967), "The Overseas Chinese in South Vietnam: A Note", Vietnam Perspectives 2 (4): 13–19, JSTOR 30182506
- Chen, Jie (2002), Foreign policy of the New Taiwan: pragmatic diplomacy in Southeast Asia, Edward Elgar, ISBN 978-1-84064-635-1
- Dang, Xuan Tanh (August 2011), "AEC, ECFA and Vietnam–Taiwan Economic Relations", Taiwan–Vietnam Economic Cooperation: Moving Towards the 2015 Vision of ASEAN Economic Integration, retrieved 2012-12-04
- Ku, Samuel C. Y. (1999), "The Political Economy of Taiwan's Relations with Vietnam", Contemporary Southeast Asia 21 (3): 405–423
- Tran, Quang Minh (August 2011), "Two decades of Taiwan's FDI in Vietnam: An analysis", Taiwan–Vietnam Economic Cooperation: Moving Towards the 2015 Vision of ASEAN Economic Integration, retrieved 2012-12-04
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