In my last column, I suggested the time had come for India to broaden the scope of its contacts with Taiwan, instead of being overly respectful of the sensitivities of China, especially since Beijing has rarely shown the same regard for our sensitivities. This is not just about self-assertion, or even showing China that we have options.

It is also, quite simply, about self-interest. First of all, Taiwanese companies and government institutions have a lot of money sloshing about, looking for a place to plant itself. Taiwan invests some $300 billion in the economy of mainland China, and many in Taipei wonder whether it is wise to place quite so many eggs in the People’s Republic of China’s basket. Taiwanese investment in India is a measly $1 billion so far, and the potential for more is considerable. Most of it is currently concentrated in a handful of industries in a couple of states (Tamil Nadu and the bits of Andhra Pradesh that are easily accessible from Chennai). Diversification is clearly on the cards; when I was in Taipei in April, I met a businessman who was about to buy 10 per cent of a petrochemical industry in Gujarat, and was open to more. Kerala, with its upcoming Technocity in Thiruvananthapuram and Smart City in Kochi, will want to talk to Taiwanese IT firms about setting up shop in its sylvan environs. There are many other examples. Attracting investment isn’t just about growing gross domestic product (GDP); it generates employment, which is vital if we are to benefit from our “demographic dividend” (having a young, dynamic workforce at a time when the rest of the world, including China, is ageing).
If India is skittish about opening its arms nationally to Taiwan, why not take advantage of our federal system to allow our states to deal directly with the island nation? In an economy which is already witnessing considerable competition between states for investment (remember the offers flooding into Tata after the Nano pulled out of West Bengal?), I see no reason why we shouldn’t encourage Kerala and Gujarat to sell their wares to Taiwanese investors. In the end, it is India that will benefit.
Another obvious area of cooperation is educational and scientific exchange. Taiwan is host to some of the best universities in the world, especially in the areas of science and engineering. Degrees earned there are recognised worldwide (even in India!). They are also more affordable than university courses in the United States or the United Kingdom, and of comparable quality. There’s only one catch: for the most part, the medium of instruction in Taiwan is Mandarin Chinese. But Taiwan is also the best place in the world outside Beijing to learn that language, mastery of which will count for more in the world as China acquires superpower status in the next few decades. So, encouraging Indian students to both learn Chinese and undertake advanced study in Taiwan is potentially of double benefit. Taiwanese minister of education Wu Ching-ji recently came to India, accompanied by 22 university presidents from his country. He and his colleagues are keen on opening their portals to young Indians. There are currently 500 Indian students in Taiwan; the minister, and his country’s energetic representative in Delhi, Philip Ong, would like to see that figure change to 2,000 within two years. The potential is for 10,000, Mr Ong says, in five years. The word just needs to get out.
If we send you students, I joked to the Taiwanese, please send us your tourists! India has been receiving just 25,000 Taiwanese visitors a year, a negligible figure from a country of affluent travellers (1.8 million of whom travel every year to Hokkaido alone!). As the birthplace of Buddhism, the majority religion in Taiwan, and as a country that has much to offer the East Asian tourist, India should be doing a better job of selling its attractions to Taiwan.
Alongside the development of this relationship, we would need to increase official-level contact between our two countries, encourage journalists and scholars to travel to and write about each other, establish connections between our smarter think-tanks, and get Parliamentarians to meet to exchange their experiences of fractious democracy in action. Political leaders from various parties could also be welcomed in each other’s countries.
All of this, of course, immediately begs the question, won’t China object? Will such overt engagement with a “pariah state” incur Chinese disapproval? It might, but I believe we should stand our ground. No country needs to apologise for doing something that is unambiguously in its own national interest, and that is not gratuitously offensive to the other. So we should stop short of doing anything that implies treating Taiwan as a sovereign state; no prime ministerial namaste for the Taiwanese President, for instance, which would naturally rile Beijing. But inviting an ex-President of Taiwan to deliver a lecture in India, or getting a presidential candidate to familiarise herself with New Delhi before entering the electoral lists, should be possible, indeed desirable.
And we should do it. I mentioned in my previous column how much intimate and direct contact China already has with Taiwan. It has also made important international concessions, notably permitting the International Olympic Committee to admit a separate Taiwanese team, albeit under the name “Chinese Taipei” and without flying the Republic of China’s flag. Recently, Taiwanese delegates were allowed to participate in the World Health Assembly, the global gathering of the United Nation’s World Health Organisation (WHO), though China ensures they are not treated on a par with governments. If “one country, two entities” is a viable formula in those two places, it can be contemplated carefully elsewhere.
So let us not be, as the French put it, “plus royaliste que le roi”, placing restrictions on ourselves that the Chinese have long ceased to observe (but insist on imposing on others). After all, China too has its own interests in preserving a good relationship with India — a gigantic market for its products and project exports, and a trade balance weighted hugely in Beijing’s favour. The onus should not always be on us to bend over to accommodate their concerns. As long as we draw the line short of political recognition, India should deal enthusiastically with Taiwan. On its own merits — and for our own sake.

Concluded. The first part of this two-part series was published on May 13
Shashi Tharoor is a member of Parliament from Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram constituency