China-Taiwan trip could augur closer university collaboration

Scholars believe a trip by senior administrators from top Chinese universities to Taiwan could signal warming ties between universities on either side of the Taiwan Strait.

This month representatives from five Chinese institutions, including Peking University and Tsinghua University, visited counterparts at National Taiwan University and National Chengchi University, among others. According to an announcement by the Chinese delegation, it was the first time in more than three years that a mainland university has organised a visit to Taiwan, amid the pandemic and heightened political tensions.

The trip comes half a year before January’s election, in which Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party will fight to maintain power amid a challenge from more China-friendly parties – and during a tense period for the island.

Will Yat Wai Lo, professor of international education at Durham University, said that Taiwanese universities typically followed the political ebb and flow, with collaboration between them “closely connected” to the overall relationship between Taipei and Beijing.

“When a party with a more pro-engagement stance is in power in Taiwan, there tends to be a greater willingness to engage in various forms of exchanges, including educational collaborations,” he said.

Professor Lo believed the recent visit was “significant” and could signal a “warming of ties”.

He noted that some exchange activities between Chinese and Taiwanese universities already restarted early this year. An even “more significant signal” of warming ties, he believed, would be if degree-seekers from the mainland were to resume studying in Taiwan.

“As an academic, I believe that educational collaboration should ideally remain insulated from the fluctuations of political dynamics,” he added.

Angela Hou, an education scholar and associate dean at National Chengchi University, also believed the visit augured closer ties between the two, helping reduce “cross-Strait tension”. She said that, given improving relations, private universities might be able to tap into the Chinese student market to resolve their acute student shortage.

Sheng-Ju Chan, dean for student affairs at National Chung Cheng University, was more reserved, noting the ongoing “hostile relationship” between mainland China and the island despite the fact that greater intra-regional mobility has been high on the policy agenda for both sides.

“It is more about political gesture and testing the water instead of re-establishing mutual trust in the higher education sector,” he said of the trip, noting that closer ties would take “more time to nurture”.

But growing ties is about more than top-down politics, as more than academic noted.

While a more China-friendly government could create incentives for Taiwanese institutions to collaborate more with mainland ones, researchers would still need to want to apply, said Alexandre Erler, an associate professor at National Yang Ming University in Taiwan.

“It’s unclear to me how receptive Taiwanese researchers would be to such incentives,” he said.

Mumin Chen, professor of politics at National Chung Hsing University, was among those to be wary, calling the visit “Chinese government propaganda” meant to show “normalised” relations between universities even as Beijing “manipulates Taiwan-China student exchanges for political purposes”.

He noted that, as a result of Beijing’s policies, the number of Chinese students at Taiwanese universities dropped by nearly half, from nearly 42,000 in 2016 to 25,000 in 2019.

“There were no policy changes from the Taiwan side in this period, but the Chinese government set up various barriers preventing their students from coming to Taiwan,” he said.

pola.lem@timeshighereducation.com