Is China behind the anti-India worker sentiment in Taiwan?

From the diplomatic sight of India-Taiwan relations, ties and cooperation between the two nations have never looked better. India, of late, has also distanced itself from its commitment to the One-China Policy.

In words of the S Jaishankar, the External Affairs Minister of India, the present-day tie has reached "an upswing in the levels of cooperation."

But, the recent reports of racial discrimination-based resistance, to a proposal to hire 1,00,000 Indian workers are distressing. While the apprehension in the Taiwanese citizenry, around Indian blue-collared workers crowding up the island nation of 2.3 crore people, may look to be genuine, experts suggest that the online resistance has been planted from across the Formosa Strait, ie, Mainland China.

The proposal

• A recent Bloomberg report said that the Taiwanese government was exploring the possibility of recruiting Indian workers to tackle labour shortages.
• The shortage is a result of Twaiwn's fast ageing population and its low fertility rate from the last decade, which would have replaced the retiring old Taiwanese.
• The Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi subsequently verified that talks were underway regarding a potential agreement on labour and mobility, India Today reported.

Racial backlash

• The proposal was quick to pick up resistance and opposition on social media.
•  "I would rather have foreign workers from Indonesia or the Philippines than come from India. The values ​​at the bottom of India are really too backwards, and it will only worsen security in Taiwan, a Taiwanese told China Times.
• A recent online poll on 'Dcard' to assert the public sentiments, with just 2000 voters, yielded results against the proposal.
• According to Sana Hashmi, an Indian research scholar based in Taipei, the influx of Indian workers has the potential to give rise to "social security problems" on the island.
• To iron things out, the Ministry of Labor of Taiwan, on November 15 released a statement which said the inclusion of Indian migrant workers is a proactive response to labour shortages and it would regulate the inflow gradually and systematically, reported Sputnik.

Taiwan faced a similar backlash in 2021 when it faced criticism fire for its racist policies towards Southeast Asian workers, which was kind of a social apartheid.

Women's Safety in Taiwan

• A report from the Ministry of the Interior said that around 90 per cent of victims of stalking and harassment in 2022 were women.
• Out of these,  58 per cent are of "general stalking and harassment," and the remaining 42 per cent of the cases of "domestic violence and stalking" category, said Focus Taiwan.
• Based on a survey by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, approximately one out of every five women in Taiwan has reported experiencing abusive relationships.
• On average, an incident of abuse occurs every five minutes in Taiwan, with a daily reported count of 322 cases.
• In 2021, Kao Chia-yu, a legislator from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), said that she was a victim of physical assault perpetrated by her partner, reported Taipei Times.

Authenticity of the backlash

• According to an NDTV story, the harmful propaganda circulating on Taiwanese social media is the possibility of disinformation originating from Mainland China.
• Initial reports suggesting the protests to the proposal first surfaced on China Times, a publication owned by the pro-China Taiwanese tycoon Tsai Eng-Meng.
• Several X users have also questioned the authenticity of the poll and the subsequent protest.

• Chinese social media has at multiple times been flooded by anti-India content and it goes beyond saying that the heavy-handed Chinese presence and surveillance of Taiwanese social media and communication would allow the MoU to proceed.

So, based on a survey of 2,000 people and a heavy dosage of racial stereotypes against Indians and South Asians, the opposition to the proposal simply looks like a ploy against the incoming workforce.

How many such cases were registered on the Indian workers who built the oil-yielding tiny nations in the Gulf?