Taiwan has set up almost 50 Mandarin language centers overseas in just two years. And Minister Tung Chen-yuan says that will rise to 100 by the end of 2025.
Tung is leading a global push for Taiwan to replace China as the dominant provider of Mandarin language teaching worldwide. The United States and other countries say they are worried that China is using its language centers, known as Confucius Institutes, to expand its influence and stifle academic freedom.
In 2020, Taiwan and the US signed a joint education initiative aimed at helping Taiwanese people learn English and Americans learn Mandarin.
Since then, Taiwan has set up 45 Taiwan Centers for Mandarin Learning. Most of them are in the United States, but Taiwan has also founded centers in the UK, France, Germany, Austria, Ireland, Hungary and Sweden.
Minister Tung says the plan is to establish 100 centers within five years.