Written by Dah-Wei (David) Yih.
Image credit: North American Taiwan Studies Association.
The North American Taiwan Studies Association (NATSA) 2024 Conference featured a participatory workshop titled “Employing a ‘Taiwan Matters’ Philosophy: Tips and Tools for Making Americans Care,” presented by Amy Namur and Zoe Weaver-Lee from the East-West Center in Washington (EWCW). Dah-Wei (David) Yih (University of Virginia School of Law) and Chris Chih-Hua Tseng (Department of Sociology, University of California, Irvine) co-moderated this session.
The North American Taiwan Studies Association (NATSA) celebrated its 30th anniversary this June by hosting three workshops, ten invited events, 20 paper panels, and nearly 150 participants in upper Manhattan. The 2024 Annual Conference, themed “Taiwan Studies Matters: Worlding the Contested Frontier,” aimed to bridge Taiwan’s complex local knowledge and global perspectives. Among the inspiring panels where participants shared insights on their “Taiwan experience,” there was a notable lunchtime event focused on equipping attendees with strategies to tell a compelling Taiwan story to their American friends.
Amy Namur and Zoe Weaver-Lee from the East-West Center in Washington (EWCW) led a workshop called “Employing a Taiwan Matters Philosophy: Tips and Tools for Making Americans Care.” The session aimed to energise the NATSA community to communicate Taiwan’s importance more effectively to American audiences.
Why does Taiwan Matter?
The workshop focused on the critical question of why Taiwan matters, which has been at the centre of discussions and debates not only in academia but also in various fields. Taiwan is a leading democracy, an advanced economy, and a world-class technological powerhouse. Its contributions to the international community, its rich history, its economic strength, and its dynamic society, in many ways, speak for itself. From an American perspective, Taiwan matters for several key reasons, encompassing economic, geopolitical, and ideological dimensions. This significance is underscored by the US government’s long-standing characterisation of the self-governed island as a “key US partner in the Indo-Pacific.”
However, articulating the importance of Taiwan can be challenging, let alone convincing people in the United States to care about Taiwan. To highlight the unique and robust ties between the United States and the island nation, the East-West Center in Washington (EWCW) brought its “Taiwan Matters for America/America Matters for Taiwan” program to NATSA, offering participants with the data needed to answer the question, “Why does Taiwan matter?”
Know the Links and Stakes
To respond to the critical question, the workshop commenced with an icebreaker activity designed to explore various perspectives on why Taiwan matters. To create a lively platform for discussion, the two facilitators provided boards labelled with different thematic areas, such as “business, trade, and investment,” “democracy and other shared values,” and “AI, semiconductors, and other emerging technologies.” These themes not only allow people to see connections between Taiwan and the world but also reveal some potential stakes that Taiwan might face, particularly in regard to the underlying Taiwan-US relations.
Through exploring these key areas, participants acknowledged the shared values, close commercial and economic ties, and strong people-to-people connections between the two democracies. Several participants, for instance, highlighted Taiwan as a flourishing democracy in contrast to China’s authoritarian model. One participant remarked that, for the general public in the United States, Taiwan’s success serves as a “symbol of the benefits of the democratic system and a counterpoint to authoritarianism.
From another perspective, in the economic realm, the United States and Taiwan have growing commercial, financial, and trade ties that advance US interests and create job opportunities in the United States. Drawing from the “Taiwan Matters for America/America Matters for Taiwan” program, the facilitators demonstrated the importance of numbers in conveying Taiwan’s significance. For example, Taiwan is the United States’ 7th-largest trading partner, while the US is Taiwan’s 2nd-largest. In 2022, US exports to Taiwan totalled an estimated $54.5 billion, supporting over 200,000 American jobs. Taiwan’s direct investments in the US (stock) reached nearly $16.1 billion that year, contributing $1.7 billion in US exports.
As the US-China tech rivalry intensifies, Taiwan’s role in the global technology supply chain, particularly in semiconductor manufacturing, becomes more critical. Companies like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) produce over 90% of the world’s most advanced semiconductors, essential for everything from everyday items like iPhones and Teslas to hypersonic missiles. A participant in the workshop noted that any disruption to Taiwan’s semiconductor industry could have “significant implications for global tech industries and the US economy,” sparking an important discussion on Taiwan’s strategic importance to the United States.
Aside from the political and economic aspects, the discussion also touched on the Taiwan-US collaborations in the scientific and educational spheres. The panellists highlighted that the United States and Taiwan have a long history of joint scientific endeavours in areas such as meteorology, nuclear science, and public health. The workshop facilitators noted with data that Taiwan is the United States’ 7th-largest source of international students, with more than 24,000 students coming to the United States each year in the three decades leading up to the pandemic. The United States, on the other hand, sponsors study abroad opportunities in Taiwan for US students from high school to postgraduate levels, with a particular focus on Mandarin language learning. The educational exchanges, which have substantially increased in the past few years, further strengthen the ties between the two countries.
Build Ties, One Handshake at a Time
To further familiarise people with Taiwan’s contributions to the United States and its practical applications, the workshop facilitators introduced an interactive activity called “Taiwan Matters Trivia.” This activity aimed to deepen the participants’ understanding of questions like “Which state has the most jobs supported by exports to Taiwan?” and “How many universities participate in initiatives to provide Mandarin language learning opportunities in Taiwan?”
The trivia sparked lively discussions on how to effectively integrate Taiwan into the American context. This was crucial, as many people may be familiar with one aspect but found it challenging to grasp the broader, ongoing conversations. The interactive workshop helped close this gap by posing questions that connected to people’s everyday experiences.
Another activity, the “Subnational Simulation,” further shifted the role of participants from answering questions to proactively engaging in making relevant knowledge about Taiwan and the United States available and accessible to the global community. It divided participants into groups for a simulation exercise. Participants were tasked with creating presentations and speeches using data from the Taiwan Matters for America program to emphasise the significance of Taiwan-US relations at the subnational level. Scenarios included advocating for new exchange programs and preparing welcome speeches for state governors. Ultimately, this activity helped create a platform for citizen diplomacy by encouraging participants to engage directly with local issues and foster international understanding.
Tell a Story to an American
How do we tell a story about Taiwan to someone in everyday life? Moving from the subnational and diplomatic level, the workshop landed on individual and personal engagement with Taiwan in everyday life. This was a reflective process that allowed participants to discuss the use of Taiwan Matters materials to tell a compelling story about Taiwan. It highlighted the importance of involving Americans in the Taiwan discourse, integrating Taiwan into daily conversations, and exploring creative strategies for effective communication. These conversations and actions do not require a specific time or space but can be spontaneous and integrated into people’s daily lives. In this case, everyone can be an active agent in promoting knowledge about Taiwan in the United States and filling in the blanks that may lead to misunderstandings or knowledge gaps. As a participant shared after the event, this effort “further strengthened ties and bridged connections across the Pacific Ocean.”
At a time when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine underscores the ever-present threat of authoritarian aggression, NATSA 30 brought attention to the strength of Taiwan’s diverse society and its vibrant democracy. The workshop, as a response to the current geopolitical situation, further provided participants with valuable tools, insights, practices, and tactics to enhance appreciation of Taiwan’s role in the international community from different perspectives and, importantly, to share the story of the island nation with people across the United States.
Dah-Wei (David) Yih (he/him) is a doctoral researcher at the University of Virginia School of Law, where he studies and writes about international law, foreign relations, and national security. He served as a program commissioner for the 2024 NATSA Annual Conference. He can be reached at kdw8fp@virginia.edu.
This article was published as part of a special issue on ‘NATSA: Taiwan Studies Matters’.
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