As Taiwan votes, will there be any shift in ties with Indonesia?

Tsai Ing-wen has used her New Southbound Policy to strengthen relations with 18 countries, including Indonesia

But analysts say it has been hamstrung by the One China policy, leading to questions about its future shape if Tsai wins or loses the election

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Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen attends a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) campaign rally in Taipei ahead of the 2020 presidential election. Photo: AP

Published: 8:30am, 11 Jan 2020Updated: 4:55pm, 19 Jan 2020

Since arriving in Taipei last year on a Taiwanese government scholarship, Indonesian journalist Teddy Tri Setio Berty, 25, has learned about 300 Mandarin words and can even ask for directions and order food.

The Jakarta-based reporter said he applied for the six-month language course at Taiwan’s Soochow University to experience life abroad. “I want to feel more of what has been felt by those who live in an environment with different religious, racial or ethnic backgrounds,” said Berty, a Muslim.

“I feel that Taiwan is the right and friendly place for me to have that [cultural understanding] experience,” he said.

Indonesian journalist Teddy Tri Setio Berty, 25, is on a six-month Taiwanese government scholarship to study Mandarin in Taipei. Photo: Randy Mulyanto

Berty was one of 79 recipients of the Taiwanese government scholarship last year for Indonesian nationals to pursue university degrees or non-degree Mandarin programmes, as part of a bid to boost ties between the self-ruled island and Southeast Asia’s largest economy. In 2018, there were 11,812 Indonesian students taking diploma and non-diploma programmes in Taiwan, making the country the fourth-largest source of international students after China, Malaysia and Vietnam.

Since coming to power in 2016, Taiwan’s current president Tsai Ing-wen has used the New Southbound Policy (NSP) to ramp up economic and trade collaboration, people-to-people exchanges, resource sharing and institutional links between Taiwan and 18 countries, including 10 Asean member states, in the hope of reducing its economic dependence on China.

But as Tsai and her pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) fight a presidential election on Saturday, analysts say the policy has not yielded much success in trade though it has achieved more people-to-people exchanges between Taiwan and Indonesia.