Review for New Zealand Journal of East Asian Studies, December 1998

Immigration has had a bit of a roller coaster ride. DNA tests have confirmed a relationship between indigenous peoples of the Yangtse valley, which include the aborigines of Taiwan, and Maori. However, in modern times most Chinese who came to New Zealand originated from Guangdong province on the mainland. If there was any emigration from Taiwan during the Japanese period it went unnoticed. Prior to 1961 it was forbidden entirely and up to 1989 it was restricted. The lifting of the Taiwanese ban coincided with the opening up of New Zealand to Asian immigration following the 1987 Immigration Act. According to Taiwanese figures, emigration to New Zealand jumped some five-fold between 1991 and 1992, shooting New Zealand to the third most popular destination, ahead of Australia. In 1994 nearly 5000 Taiwanese emigrated to New Zealand, compared with about six and a half thousand to each of the USA and Canada and six hundred odd to Australia. By 1996, Taiwan was our major source of immigrants. New Zealand's popularity seems to have owed much to perceived ease of entry compared with other destinations such as the United States which, in Taiwanese eyes, were more desirable. Then new regulations caused applications to dry up, forcing the government to review the situation, introducing less stringent regulations in October 1998. Whether the changes will have the desired effect has yet to be seen but it seems unlikely that immigration flows will return to the intensity of the mid-nineties. This is probably all for the good and a more restrained and sustainable flow, especially if it were dispersed from Auckland, would be desirable.

Trade has been less volatile and over the last thirty years has grown enormously. As Steve Hoadley notes, Taiwan was at one stage New Zealand's sixth largest trade partner, occasionally surpassing the mainland, even in recent years. In the long term the mainland, even excluding Hong Kong, will draw ahead of Taiwan especially as a source of imports, aided by the transfer of Taiwanese manufacturing to the mainland. Nevertheless Taiwan will, for the foreseeable future, be a very important trading partner for New Zealand. Perhaps more important than direct trade will be its relationship with the mainland economy. Even if its ambition to position Taiwan as an 'Asia Pacific Regional Operations Centre'- promoting Taiwan as the location of choice for multinational enterprises wishing to set up headquarters from which to manage their operation is the region - are not fully realised it still offers New Zealand companies great opportunities. To some extent, what succeeds with Taiwan's consumers today will be attractive to their mainland counterparts tomorrow. There are lessons to be learn and experiences to be transferred. Taiwan's links both with the mainland and with the overseas Chinese economy of Southeast Asia, one of the world's largest though without any identity of national sovereignty, are extensive. A local partner is often the key to success.

The importance of Taiwan is just one side of the story. The other revolves around its relationship with the mainland, and that is what adds great complexity and difficulty to New Zealand-Taiwan relations. It also makes it much academically interesting and it is strange that it has received so little attention except from Steve Hoadley. This is his second book on the subject, a previous one having been published by the NZ Institute of International Affairs in 1993.

New Zealand studies on the Taiwan relationship are thin on the ground, apart from the immigration aspect which has been rather better researched. A selected bibliography is given an the end of this review. Alan Bollard, now Treasury secretary, did a report on NZ-Taiwan trade for NZ Institute of Economic Research in 1989 . Taiwan is seen as part of New Zealand's wider relationship with 'China' (broadly defined) in Beal and Zhang 1996 and in Watt 1992. Relations with Taiwan are considered as part of New Zealand's foreign relations in McKinnon 1993. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade published, for a few years, a useful compendium of country-market studies (MFAT 1995) which included Taiwan. This appears to have been discontinued. There are fairly frequent references to New Zealand-Taiwan relations in the press, mostly focussing on immigration issues and often of indifferent quality or passing interest. The business press tends to be more substantial and Barber 1997 is an example from one of our best journalists.

Cremer and Ramasamy 1996 consider investment from Taiwan as part of Asian investment in New Zealand. There are some studies of Taiwan as an inbound tourism market for New Zealand and NZTB 1992 is an example of that; these tend to be superficial from an academic point of view and geared to those with a business involvement in tourism. There are an unknown number of student dissertations which might be of interest but, by their nature, they can be difficult to pick up in bibliographic searches and perhaps there are valuable studies which are only known within departments. Wang 1995 has a chapter on current Taiwan-New Zealand relations within the framework of Taiwan's relations with the South Pacific and McGowan 1992, from its title, presumably covers the period up to 1972.

Immigration has attracted much attention in recent years and given Taiwan's brief importance as a major source of immigrants it is not surprising that most studies of the Taiwan-New Zealand relationship are within this context. There are four types. Firstly there is research, such as McKinnon 1996 and Vasil and Yoon 1996, which looks at the broad theme of Asian migration into New Zealand. Redmond 1995 looks at Asian immigration within the specific location of the Auckland suburb of Howick famous in this context both for the high proportion of Asian immigrants and also as the scene of Winston Peter's speech of February 1996. Secondly there are those who use some sub-set of Asia. Lidgard 1996 uses the phrase 'East Asia' but means Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea. Dr Lidgard and her colleagues at the Population Studies Centre have produced a valuable series of relevant discussion papers on immigration issues, of which this is but one. Yoon 1995 combines studies of Taiwanese, Japanese and Filipino immigrants in Auckland.

The third category is Chinese immigration, of which there have been a number of studies over the years. Recent examples are Ip 1996 and Ip and Zhang 1996. Finally there are studies which focus exclusively on Taiwanese. Tania Boyer pioneered this when she was a masters student of geography at Auckland under Hong-Key Yoon and her thesis (Boyer 1995a) led to a chapter in Yoon's compendium (Yoon 1995, Boyer 1995b) and an article in Asia Pacific Viewpoint (Boyer 1996). Taiwanese immigration is also the subject of Beal and Sos 1999.

Whilst all these studies provide insights in various aspects of the New Zealand-Taiwan relationship only Steve Hoadley has researched the relationship in a comprehensive way and he deserves our gratitude for that. Despite the book being far too short (69 pages) and lacking either an index or a bibliography, he does cover the major issues. Three chapters are devoted to a historical overview leading to the present stage of 'pragmatic' or 'quasi-diplomacy' where there are de facto embassies in both countries - the New Zealand Commerce and Industry Office (NZCIO) in Taipei and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Wellington and Auckland. He then looks at trade relations, the flow of people, the Taiwanese community in New Zealand and finishes with a survey of issues for negotiation - trade, diplomatic and immigration. This broad coverage of the relationship is particularly valuable because of the way the various aspects interact with each other. Tourism, immigration and trade all have their cross linkages and all of them, to a greater or lesser extent, are effected by government-to-government relations.

'Government-to-government relations'? There, of course, lies the rub. Is Taiwan a province of China, as the People's Republic of China would have us believe, or is it the Republic of China on Taiwan, as claimed by the Kuomintang (KMT) in Taipei? Or is it something else? An independent 'Republic of Taiwan' as favoured, at least in the past, by the opposition Democratic People's Party (DPP) in Taiwan? It is all of these and yet none of them. The reality, which no one denies, is that Taiwan is a functioning politico-economic entity, and a very successful one at that. But history, and the nation state, cannot be written off as easily as that. No foreseeable government of China will relinquish its claim to Taiwan, and with it the prerogative of the nation state, the right to use force (although this is increasingly tempered with the addendum that Chinese don't fight Chinese). Taiwan, along with Hong Kong, is a major symbol of 19th century China's dismemberment by the foreign powers. The people of Taiwan, for their part, show no desire to come under the sway of the central government in Beijing, although the December 1998 election result, which saw the DPP's Chen Shui-bian lose the Taipei mayoralty to the KMT's Ma Ying-jeou has been interpreted as a weariness with the pro-independence line of the DPP which might be seen as imperilling Taiwan's security and prosperity to no practical advantage. . Chen Shui-bian (who visited New Zealand a couple of years ago) has been widely-tipped as the DDP candidate for President in the 2000 elections so his defeat is significant, although it is counterbalanced to some extent by a DDP victory in Taiwan's second city, Kaohsiung. Beijing, it is said, is content with the election results, reading them as an acceptance by Taiwanese of the status quo. That entails, of course, de facto independence and de jure acceptance, recognition or acknowledgment - the words vary- of Beijing's claim. That is New Zealand's position and Steve Hoadley quite rightly devotes a lot of attention to it and how it came about.

The struggle by Taiwan to gain varying degrees of de jure recognition is an intriguing one, and there is a constant push to try to move to formal diplomatic status and in this rather unreal, legalistic world, much hangs on a word or phrase. For instance Taiwan officials want NZ to drop the suffix 'province of China' from Taiwan on official documents arguing that 'the Republic of China has been a sovereign government since 1912'. Yet Taiwan was a Japanese colony until the end of the war and was only handed back because it was accepted that it was, in fact, a 'province of China'. Whilst it is natural for Taiwan to press the case, it is unlikely to make much headway. Some micro states, and those whose main connection with the Chinese is aid rather than trade, have affording Taiwan diplomatic recognition, and sometimes they change their mind when a better offer comes from Beijing. However for other countries the prospects are severely limited. The United States to some extent goes its own way because of size, the compelling impact of domestic considerations on foreign policy and traditional ties with the KMT. Japan similarly takes a strongish line. After the recent visit of Jiang Zemin to Japan the joint communique said that Japan ...'reiterates its understanding that there is one China. Japan will continue to maintain its exchanges of private and regional nature with Taiwan.'(The Japanese also refused to apologise for the war). For small countries such as New Zealand the room for manoeuvre is very limited and the potential dangers of alienating Beijing are greater. In fact, with the rapidly decreasing control of the Chinese government over foreign trade, and its increasingly relaxed or more confident approach to such matters, the prospects of meaningful retaliatory sanctions are fast diminishing. Nevertheless, the New Zealand side has to move with circumspection. Whilst I tend to agree with Hoadley that New Zealand has been overly cautious in deepening its relationship with Taiwan the recent reaction of the Chinese to the extension of further 'diplomatic courtesies' to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) illustrate how sensitive the issue is. Taiwan has a lot to gain and little to lose (except in the negotiating of giving too much too soon) in the game of diplomatic courtesies. That is not true for New Zealand.

I am not sure that there is much mileage to be gained on the 'diplomatic courtesies' front. As former National Party president Geoff Thompson wrote in The Dominion recently '[Taiwan's] diplomatic isolation is an irritation, but seems to have little effect 'diplomatic courtesies' on the success of the country's traders and entrepreneurs"( 11 December, 1998 p. 8). Whilst not having diplomatic accreditation is clearly a burden on TECO staff in personal terms it is not clear that it has much practical impact.

Steve Hoadley provides some fascinating details of the minutiae of the diplomatic jousting that goes on. For instance he write-

'In 1991 talks on air links stalled. Fortunately, the New Zealand government ended the offensive visa stamp for visitors from Taiwan, raised the status of the New Zealand Commerce and Industry Office, acceded to the Republic of China's wish to change the name of its East Asia Trade Centre to Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, and allowed its representative access to the arrivals hall of international airports. These courtesies, while falling short of concessions requested by the negotiators from Taiwan, were sufficient to re-start the negotiations on landing rights' (p. 42)

However landing rights came on the agenda because there was commercial demand for flights, and when that demand fell off, as it has, then the flights were curtailed, landing rights and diplomatic courtesies or not.

In fact the practical success of Taiwan's relations with countries, such as NZ, with which it does not have diplomatic recognition perhaps calls into question the nature and extent and even the necessity of conventional diplomatic frameworks. In a world of borderless economies dominated by mainly private multinational companies, with diminished national sovereignties and governments, are diplomatic privileges really justified? Is it a case of what's good for General Motors is good for the American, or any other, government?

That thought aside, I think that Steve Hoadley lays too much stress on the diplomatic aspect in assessing the New Zealand-Taiwan relationship. It is a fascinating story, and he tells it well, not dissembling his political preferences. It reminds me of nothing so much as a tale of sexual intrigue. New Zealand is having an affair with its mistress in Taipei, and a very exciting affair it is too, with lots of trade, tourists and immigrants. This must be done surreptitiously so that the wife in Beijing doesn't sue for divorce and finish off what is, after all, a very satisfying marriage, with even more trade, investment and immigrants and with tourists and continually increasing trade in the future. In fact the wife, of course, knows full well about the affair but doesn't really mind as long as the social proprieties are maintained.

Is the Taiwan affair really as 'exciting' as it could be? Steve Hoadley thinks it is; he pronounces it a success-

'...the theme of this book is how the governments of New Zealand and Taiwan devised and adjusted policies to promote a full spectrum of bilateral relations while avoiding clashes with the government of mainland China. Th conclusion of this book is that the policies were a success. And the recommendation of this book is that these policies should be maintained and enhanced. (p. 4)

I think that broadly speaking he is correct but I also think there many aspects of the relations which could be improved, even on his own telling, and these deficiencies cannot be laid at Beijing's door. Take immigration for example. He writes-

'...the Taiwanese community ..have adapted well to their new environment. They have chosen their occupations, schools and places of residence to suit their unique, and sometimes difficult, circumstances. .Individuals from Taiwan have emerged as business, cultural and even political leaders. ...They are emerging not only as a vital link in Taiwan New Zealand relations but also as a source of dynamism in New Zealand economy and society.' (p.53)

The government also would have us believe that all is well. But is it? How rich are the Taiwanese immigrants and how much money do they bring into the country? More important, how well do they fare when they are here?

The evidence is confusing. In one place (p. 38) Hoadley estimates that the per capita wealth is $125,000, and that the 2000 odd immigrants bring in $250 million a year but a few pages later (p. 44) after pointing out that 'despite high educational qualifications, the Taiwan community in New Zealand suffered difficulty in gaining suitable employment, or any employment at all', he quotes 1996 census data showing that the median income of Taiwan-born was only $2,555 compared with NZ-born income of $17,693. Drawing on Tania Boyer's 1995 research on the Taiwanese community in Auckland he paints a rather gloomy picture of people who emigrated for 'lifestyle reasons' and were willing to take a drop in income but were not prepared for the difficulties in getting suitable employment (for instance through qualifications not being recognised by regulatory bodies) or by lack of business opportunities. What often happens is that the (male) breadwinner returns to Taiwan to conduct business there, leaving the family in New Zealand, or to be more precise, in Auckland. Not a happy state of affairs either for the family or for New Zealand. Not much re-vitalisation of the economy through inputs of entrepreneurial energy or educated know-how.

In fact New Zealand immigration has been bedevilled by unsatisfactory policies, especially in respect of English language competency, insufficient information and unrealistic expectations on both sides, and lack of effective government-sponsored migrant support measures. The social problems are not being tackled energetically enough and the potential of the immigrants is not being realised.

Another area in which potential is surely not being realised is education, or people-to-people links generally. Perhaps it is all happening in Auckland but in Wellington we don't see much sign of Taiwanese artists or musicians, or school exchanges, or visiting academics, or journalists. The list could continue.

To return to the sexual metaphor, we don't need a dose of viagra to inject more excitement into the Taiwan relationship. We do need to identify the inhibiting factors that lie within our control and we need to increase mutual knowledge and understanding. Steve Hoadley has made important and pioneering contributions to our knowledge of New Zealand-Taiwan relations and I look forward to his next book on the subject. He has a lot more to tell us.

Selected bibliography on New Zealand-Taiwan Relations

BOOKS

Beal and Sos 1999: Beal, Tim and Farib Sos, Global Citizens?: Taiwanese Immigration in Australasia and the search for a new life , forthcoming

Beal and Zhang 1996: Beal, Tim and Zhang, Yongjin (eds), New Zealand and China, Present and Future: Issues in NZ-China Relations, Wellington, Centre for Asia/Pacific Law and Business (CAPLAB), Victoria University of Wellington, 1996

Bollard 1989: Bollard, Alan, Taiwan-New Zealand economic relations, Wellington, NZ Institute of Economic Research, 1989

Boyer 1995a: Boyer, Tania M., Instant Kiwis? A Study of the migration and adaptation of the Auckland Taiwanese Community, Auckland, Department of Geography University of Auckland MA thesis, 1995

Cremer and Ramasamy 1996: Cremer, R D and B Ramasamy, Tigers in New Zealand? The Role of Asian Investment in the Economy, Wellington, Institute of Policy Studies, 1996

Hoadley 1993: Hoadley, Stephen, New Zealand and Taiwan : the policy and practice of quasi-diplomacy, Wellington, New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, 1993

Hoadley 1998: Hoadley, Stephen, Auckland, New Zealand-Taiwan Relations, New Zealand Asia Institute, University of Auckland and Auckland Institute of Studies, 1998

Ip 1966: Ip, Manying, Dragons on the long white cloud : the making of Chinese New Zealanders, Auckland, Tandem Press, 1966,

Ip and Zhang 1996: Ip, Manying and Zhang Yongjin, The Chinese community and New Zealand politics, Auckland, University of Auckland, 1996

Lidgard 1996: Lidgard, Jacqueline M, East Asian Migration to Aotearoa/New Zealand: Perspectives of Some New Arrivals, Hamilton, Population Studies Centre, University of Waikato, 1996

McGowan 1992: McGowan, Lisa, New Zealand and the Republic of China : the years of recognition, Auckland, Research essay (MA--Asian Studies)--University of Auckland, 1992

McKinnon 1993: McKinnon, Malcolm, Independence and Foreign Policy: New Zealand in the World since 1935, Auckland, Auckland University Press, 1993

McKinnon 1996: McKinnon, Malcolm, Immigrants and Citizens: New Zealanders and Asian Immigration in historical context, Wellington, Institute of Policy Studies, Victoria University of Wellington, 1996

MFAT 1995: Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (NZ), Asia: Trade and Economic Prospects, Wellington, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (NZ), 1995

NZTB 1992: New Zealand Tourism Board, Segmentation study of the Taiwan long haul holiday market, Wellington, New Zealand Tourism Board, 1992

Redmond 1995: Redmond, Sarah-Elizabeth, Asian Immigrants in Howick: ethnic boundary negotiation, Hamilton, Department of Social Anthropology University of Waikato MSocASc thesis, 1995

Vasil and Yoon 1996: Vasil, Raj and Hong-Key Yoon, New Zealanders of Asian Origin, Wellington, Institute of Policy Studies, Victoria University of Wellington, 1996

Watt 1992: Watt, Lindsay, New Zealand and China Towards 2000, Wellington, Institute of Policy Studies, Victoria University of Wellington, 1992

Wong 1995: Wong, Mei Kwan, Taiwan's Diplomacy in the South Pacific, Wellington, Victoria University of Wellington MA thesis, 1995

Yoon 1995: Yoon, Hong-Key (ed), An Ethno-Geography of Taiwanese, Japanese and Filipino Immigrants in Auckland, Auckland, Department of Geography, University of Auckland, 1995

ARTICLES

Barber 1997: Barber, David, Economic ties with Taiwan collapsing, National Business Review, 1/8/97, 17

Boyer 1995b: Boyer, Tania, 'Home sweet home? An analysis of Taiwanese immigration since 1986, and the present status of the Taiwanese community in Auckland', in Yoon, H-K. (ed), An Ethno-Geography of Taiwanese, Japanese and Filipino Immigrants in Auckland, 1995

Boyer 1996: Boyer, Tania, Problems in paradise: Taiwanese immigrants to Auckland, New Zealand, Asia Pacific Viewpoint, April 1996 37(1), 59-79

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