ABSTRACT
Taiwan is a small island located in the heart of East Asia. It has been serially colonised by the Dutch, Portuguese, Japanese and mainland China. In the past few decades, the industrial revolution and technology advances have brought modernisation, wealth and subsequent democracy to Taiwan. In 2015, Taiwan’s population was 23.5 million, while the GDP per capita was around 22,294 USD, a considerable leap from 154 USD in the 1940s, the post-colonial era (DGBAS 2016a; Ministry of Interior). In recent years, Taiwan has been going through a transition from a manufacturing to a service-driven economy after many manufacturers relocated to China. Since the late 1970s, China’s relatively abundant labour and land, lower operational costs and vast domestic market have attracted many Taiwanese to relocate or run businesses there. A former Labour Minister estimated that more than 850,000 Taiwanese work or live in mainland China (Lin 2014a). That amounts to approximately 3.7 percent of the population and more than 7 percent of the workforce. Moreover, the number of people leaving Taiwan to relocate or seek jobs and business opportunities abroad is set to rise as the country is currently going through a difficult economic period. Dissatisfied with economic slowdown, low wages, corruption scandals and many other socio-political problems under the reign of the Chinese Nationalist Party (the KMT government), led the Taiwanese people to elect their first female president, Tsai Ing-wen, and her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in January 2016. As the celebrations following her victory wore off, it has become evident that the new government faces some tough challenges to turn the sluggish economy and deteriorating labour market around.
