Taiwan’s Overseas Community Affairs Commission will focus on bringing the Taiwanese diaspora back to the country and expanding Mandarin education worldwide. That’s the word from commission head Hsu Chia-Ching (徐佳青) during an interview with Taiwanese media on Wednesday.
Hsu says the commission’s work today has two main tasks. The first is bringing Taiwanese diasporic youth back to Taiwan to receive an education and continue developing in the country. The second is to continue expanding Mandarin education overseas, especially through opening language centers. Hsu says Taiwan has already opened over 60 centers around the world.
Hsu says there’s been a decisive shift in the identity of the Taiwanese diaspora in recent years. She says in the past overseas Taiwanese would say that they were both Taiwanese and Chinese. But Hsu says today most will claim that they are Taiwanese and not Chinese.
Hsu’s comments reflect polling in Taiwan, where Taiwanese increasingly feel no connection to Chinese identity. A December 2022 poll from National Cheng Chi University found over 60% of Taiwanese identify as only Taiwanese.