Taiwan Students Giving U.S. a Pass

When it comes to attracting bright young people from around the world, America has had its greatest success in Taiwan.

Historically, the United States has been the only place most Taiwanese students ever considered for overseas study.

In the mid-1990s, veteran observers liked to joke that there were more holders of advanced degrees from U.S. universities in the Cabinet of Taiwan’s then-president, Lee Teng-hui, than in the Cabinet of his American contemporary, Bill Clinton.

Even the island’s educational system is modeled on the U.S.-style kindergarten-through-12th-grade format, followed by four-year college programs. For years, all this made Taiwan--despite its modest population of 22 million--the biggest contributor of foreign students to U.S. college campuses.

No longer.

For the first time since the government here began recording statistics in 1950, the number of Taiwanese students headed to the U.S. is steadily dropping. From a peak in 1994, when more than 37,500 were enrolled in U.S. schools, the number declined to about 29,000 last year. In the process, Taiwan has fallen from first to fifth place as a supplier of foreign students to the United States.

Ironically, the country with the most students now studying in the U.S. is Taiwan’s main political rival, mainland China. Japan, India and South Korea also now send more students than Taiwan to the United States.

Meanwhile, Western Europe--especially Britain--has become a steadily more attractive alternative for Taiwan’s young people looking to study abroad.

For some observers, there is a touch of irony in the fact that the easing of such strong educational and cultural links has preceded America’s recent rediscovery of Taiwan.

President Bush last month pledged to defend the island if it was attacked by Chinese forces. Bush’s comments ended two decades of deliberate ambiguity about possible U.S. reaction to such an attack--a policy meant to restrain both sides. Beijing views Taiwan as a breakaway province, not an independent political entity.

The trend also follows a decade of explosive growth for Taiwan’s high-tech industries, which are closely tied to the U.S. economy. Taiwan, for example, is a major source of semiconductors, computers and components for American industry.

Andrew Yang, head of the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies, an independent think tank, views the drop-off of Taiwanese students in the United States as part of a natural process.

“In a way, it’s inevitable as Taiwan takes on more active exchanges with other countries,” he said. “But as this happens, the United States is losing the continuity this experience provides.”

The exact meaning for the U.S. of this decline in interest is difficult to assess, especially since Taiwanese students continue to come to the U.S. in large numbers. But there is little doubt that America’s near-monopoly on schooling the island’s elite has enhanced Taiwan’s understanding of the United States and injected added goodwill into the relationship.

“It’s been a positive force in our relations,” said Chen Ching-pu, a senior faculty member at Taiwan’s National Defense University who earned his doctorate at Harvard. “People develop personal contacts, and that brings better understanding.”

While some believe that the erosion of America’s dominance as a destination for overseas study could loosen overall ties, many see broader exposure as good for Taiwan.

“I think diversification is always good,” Chen said. “We’ve become a global society, and clearly the European and U.S. cultures are different. People need to experience both.”

Vivian Liao, a twentysomething native of Taipei, the capital, is doing her best to make that happen. After finishing high school in 1994, she chose Britain over the United States for an English-language course, in part because so few Taiwanese students went there.

“Europe was kind of a secret place, so I wanted to have a look,” she said.

By the time she returned to Taipei, she had pocketed both an undergraduate degree from the University of Warwick and a master’s in tourism management from the University of Surrey.

Now she promotes British education to a new generation of high school grads as part of her job at the British Trade and Cultural Office in Taipei.

She cites lower tuition, less crime, greater deadline flexibility for applications and shorter degree programs among the reasons for Britain’s growing popularity.

Some countries, including Britain, now skillfully market their colleges and universities to Taiwan.

Justine Chen, a 21-year-old senior at National Taiwan University, said she found Britain’s education expo in Taipei superior to a similar one presented by the United States, partly because there were more faculty members familiar with a variety of programs--and partly because top U.S. universities didn’t bother to show up.

Many Taiwanese young people also complain that the process for obtaining a U.S. visa is intimidating.

“It [the visa interview] only lasted about five minutes, but it was kind of humiliating,” recalled Chen, who applied for--and was granted--a tourist visa a few years ago. “When I couldn’t produce some documents, [the visa officer] thought I was lying. I felt terrible.”

Despite her experience, Chen said she plans to do advanced studies in the U.S. rather than Britain.

“My field is marketing and communications, and there are better programs for this in America, but I now find Britain interesting too,” she said. “If I do more studies, I could see myself going there.”