Despite a loudly trumpeted 'diplomatic truce' under which neither Taiwan nor the mainland will try to raid each other's diplomatic allies, especially through the use of chequebook diplomacy, neither side has given up the contest for influence among ordinary people around the world - something that is often called soft power.
Taiwan's president, Ma Ying-jeou, made this clear when he recently disclosed that Taipei will establish a string of academies around the world to promote Chinese language and culture.
In this, mainland China has a big head start. Ever since the first Confucius Institute was opened in Seoul in 2004, Beijing has used them to spread Chinese language and culture and, today, more than 280 have been established in 88 countries and regions.
In fact, since the Chinese government provides funding and resources, they are much sought after by overseas universities.
The idea of setting up 'Taiwan Academies' - exactly what they will be called is not yet clear - around the world was floated by Ma when he was a presidential candidate. At the time, he also proposed setting up a US$150 million fund to finance an award that will be comparable to a Nobel Prize in literature for Chinese people. This, too, is worth pursuing. It is good that Taiwan is planning to strengthen its position and vie for influence in the dissemination of Chinese language and culture.
After all, in earlier years, especially during the Cultural Revolution - when the mainland was denouncing Confucius and Red Guards were destroying precious relics - Taiwan positioned itself as the guardian of Chinese culture.
But, in recent years, Beijing has been depicting itself as the custodian of Chinese culture and has used such Confucian ideas as 'harmony' to bolster support for the Communist Party.