Study On Taiwan’s Economic Development Space In Southeast Asia

The “International Space” issue regarding Taiwan appeared in the 1970 s after Taiwan withdrew from the United Nations, due to the significance and sensitivity surrounding the “Taiwan Issue”.This “International Space” issue can be divided into “the diplomatic development issue”and“the non-diplomatic development issue”, Taiwan’s authorities have tried to seek for a way to broaden its “International Space” for so many years. Countries in the Southeast Asia have close relations with Taiwan, for the reason of geopolitical proximity and frequency of exchange on economy and trade. Thus, the Southeast Asia was seen as an important area for Taiwan authorities to develop its “non-diplomatic development space”. In order to expand the economic development space in Southeast Asia to achieve the purpose of building good relations with Southeast Asian countries,Taiwan authorities raised the “Southward Policy” for three times since 1990 s. However, the effects of the “Southward Policy” went from bad to worse, thus, Taiwan’s economic influence in this area has been “marginalized”.This dissertation will firstly analyze the reasons how Taiwan was been “marginalized” when it carried out the economic and trade exchanges with the southeast Asian countries, then discuss the main factors which led to Taiwan’s economic development space in Southeast Asia to be smaller than ever. In order to make this research clear and logic, the dissertation divided the study time line into three periods, which was the same as every Taiwaness supreme leader’s term of office. Last but not least, the final part of this dissertation will clarify the existing foreign policies and economic policies of the newly elected leader Cai Yingwen in Taiwan, summarize problems that have a great effect on Taiwan’s economic development, and provide suggestions which will have a positive effect on Taiwan’s economic development space in Southeast Asia. According to this dissertation, “the level of economic development in Taiwan”, “the policies that every leader carried out to the Southeast Asia” and “the relations between the Taiwan region and the mainland of China” are the three major factors that influence Taiwan’s economic development space in Southeast Asia. It can be concluded that only when all of those three factors developed in a harmonious mode could Taiwan’s economic development space in Southeast Asia be widened in general.