Chapter 5. Push-Pull Factors for Taiwanese Graduate School Applicants to China
5.3. Discussion
5.4.1. Cross-Strait Economic Relations
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socioeconomic status of Taiwan’s young people, the concurrent development of
Taiwanese identity with pragmatism toward relations with China among Taiwan’s voters, and changing economic conditions in China that have the potential to lure Taiwanese professionals to the Mainland for better economic prospects. In this regard, several factors related to Taiwan’s academic and work environment emerged from student
questionnaires.
Insights from the student questionnaire, personal interviews, and other academic sources reveal that Taiwanese students consider factors relating to their career prospects, individual self-improvement, and interest in international perspectives in their decision to pursue a graduate degree in mainland China. While these students are by no means a homogenous group and the results from the current study cannot be applied to the entire population of Taiwanese graduate students in mainland China, the questionnaire results highlight several facets of the cross-strait relationship and the state of international higher education that have been given academic attention. The factors identified above are organized into three themes of discussion: considerations of cross-strait economic relations, individuals’ needs to build and invest in their own human capital, and a common desire to encounter international perspectives through educational experiences.
5.4.1. Cross-Strait Economic Relations
The results from the student questionnaire indicate that China’s importance in the world economy factored into their choice to migrate to China to pursue an advanced degree. These students’ responses fit into the wider context of cross-strait economic relations as well as the literature on the benefits and risks of cross-strait economic integration for Taiwan’s economy and society, especially over the last decade. The strength of China’s economy, while an attractive factor for these graduate students from Taiwan, has been the subject of ongoing debates within political and academic spheres in Taiwan.
Today, Taiwan’s economy is deeply connected with and relies heavily on China.
Taiwan’s economic policy toward China, while inconsistent over the decades since democratization, has produced changes in Taiwan that have made China an attractive option for students. One such change is the relative strength and positions of Taiwan and China in the world economy. While its economic growth has slowed in recent years, China’s economy is currently in a much different position than that of thirty years ago
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compared to Taiwan in size and influence. Worries that China’s domestic companies, especially in the technological sector, may overtake the Taiwanese firms that have thrived on the mainland abound.11 In UK-based firm Deloitte’s 2013 report of the Asia-Pacific’s 500 fastest-growing companies, China boasted 128 companies on the list, overtaking Taiwan’s 108 listed companies.12 A 2016 study of China’s domestic economy and cross-strait relations found that the rise in China’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and Chinese nationalism are crowding out Taiwanese businesses.13 As business communities continue to develop between Taiwan and China, Taiwan’s firms will need to learn to stay ahead of the curve in technological innovation to remain relevant in the global economy and in China, lest technology and skill transfer generated between the Taiwanese and Chinese give China’s domestic companies an upper hand in the future.14
A second new trend is social changes in Taiwan as a result of increased economic interactions with the Chinese mainland, as investigated by Thung-Hong Lin: Lin observes growth in Taiwan’s Gini coefficient, unemployment rate, and rate of poverty between the early 1990s and 2016 associated with growing trade and economic linkages with China.15 Lin further found that cross-strait mobility fell along class cleavages, giving capitalists, employers, the new middle class, and the more educated capacity to travel to the Mainland through their trade links to China.16 On one hand, Taiwanese with these pre-existing links to China pull students toward an education there. On the other, the desire to build networks in China for a better economic future draws Taiwanese students who want to break into Mainland industries to an education in China. Results from the student questionnaire and personal interview with Dr. Huang appear to corroborate the former hypothesis, as seven respondents indicated that they learned of graduate programs in mainland China from their Chinese friends. Additionally, Dr. Huang perceived that many graduate students in China have started careers in mainland-based companies, thus using their existing networks in the mainland to start graduate study.17 An equally popular
11 Shelley Rigger, Why Taiwan Matters, (Plymouth, UK: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011), p. 130.
12 Paul Bischoff, “China Overtakes Taiwan with Largest Number of Fastest-Growing Companies,” Tech in Asia, December 6, 2013, accessed November 1, 2018, https://www.techinasia.com/china-overtakes-taiwan-deloitte.
13 Yi-wen Yu, Ko-Chia Yu, and Tse-Chun Lin, “Political Economy of Cross-Strait Relations: Is Beijing’s Patronage Policy on Taiwanese Business Sustainable?” Journal of Contemporary China vol. 25, no. 99, 2016, p. 374.
14 Rigger, op. cit., p. 130.
15 Thung-Hong Lin, “Cross-Strait Trade and Class Cleavages in Taiwan,” in Gunter Schubert, ed., Taiwan and the ‘China Impact:’ Challenges and Opportunities, (New York: Routledge, 2016), p. 174.
16 Thung-Hong Lin, op. cit, 184.
17 Personal interview with Dr. Chun-liang Huang, Taipei, June 7, 2019.
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source of information on mainland graduate programs was the Internet, with eight respondents reporting that they used internet sources learn about graduate schools in China (five respondents reported using both the internet and friends’ recommendations).
A few respondents also indicated that their careers had already started in mainland China when they decided to apply for graduate programs. This shows that the community of Taiwanese graduate students in mainland China perhaps overlaps with the well- studied business community.
Furthermore, insight from the interview with Dr. Huang indicated that the application process, especially for doctoral programs, differs between mainland China and Taiwan in that it requires pre-established connections in mainland China. While the application and enrollment process in Taiwan for doctoral programs includes test scores and an application to the specific graduate program, schools in mainland China require information such as an applicant’s research plans and an existing relationship with a professor who will serve as the student’s research supervisor or adviser.18 Taken together, the above evidence shows that graduate students in mainland China come from a pool of applicants with pre-existing academic networks there. This perhaps shows that cross-strait integration in advanced higher education may not be introducing more Taiwanese people to the mainland through graduate studies, rather these Taiwanese students come from already well-connected networks in the mainland.
Results from the questionnaire and interview with the STEM-field professor have shown that the science and technology fields are not currently popular disciplines in mainland China for Taiwanese students seeking a graduate degree. However, this does not indicate that these Taiwanese students are averse to the idea of working in mainland China. As per the interview with the STEM professor on the popularity of China for jobs:
Getting a master’s in Taiwan is easier (two years in general) than going to China (three years), but my perception is that these graduates do think about jobs in the Mainland and will not resist the idea of working in China, because of the opportunity and chance for higher pay. It is the tussle between the pay, values and quality of life.
China’s scientific endeavor is better now and appears to have surpassed Japan in terms of number of publications and total citation, because the government of China has invested in basic science and provides good incentives to scientists.19
18 Ibid.
19 Personal interview with anonymous professor in STEM, Taipei, May 15, 2019.
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While China as a study destination in the STEM fields lags behind the developed, western countries in terms of popularity among Taiwanese students, the prospect of working in China remains on the minds of young graduates. Furthermore, China’s
ongoing “Double First Class” project aims to strengthen approximately 100 disciplines at top universities over the course of the first half of the twenty-first century. The natural sciences dominate the list of disciplines to be strengthened, including engineering, medicine, science, and agriculture.20 While these fields in China may not currently be popular for Taiwanese graduate students, the current momentum of development in the sciences in mainland China could change this trend. In this way, China’s developments in science and technology for the economy are linked to its efforts to enhance the status of its higher education institutions and disciplines. As science and technology industries in China continue to develop compared to Taiwan’s, advanced degree programs in those disciplines are developing in concert.