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This paper examines the rise of anti-Korean sentiment in contemporary Taiwan particularly at the turn of the 2010s. It moves beyond conceptualizing emotion as psychological status to conceive anti-Korean sentiment as a cultural text that debunks the complexity of emotion as an active agent of collective (un)consciousness. Specifically, the paper considers anti-Korean sentiment in Taiwan as an affective space where young Taiwanese demonstrate their active engagement in (re)locating Taiwan in the global imaginative map and their struggle for national identity in the midst of increasing geopolitical tensions in East Asia. Instead of seeing anti-Korean sentiment from an international relations perspective, this paper studies anti-Korean sentiment from a bottom-up perspective through in-depth interviews with young Taiwanese who are actively engaging with anti-Korean discussions and explore various ways that anti-Korean sentiment mediates and transforms imaginative relations between Taiwan and Korea and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two broad and seemingly contradictory perspectives exist on U.S. alliances with South Korea and Taiwan. One focuses on how Washington carefully designed the alliances to rein in its overly warlike junior partners, while the other focuses on the surprisingly big influence of Seoul and Taipei that belied the power asymmetry in their relationships with Washington. This paper shows the influence of small allies is not a static feature of asymmetrical alliances designed to restrain them; small allies might exert unduly large influence at the stage of alliance formation, but once the alliance is institutionalised, they may lose much of the initial leverage. The findings lend empirical support to the view of alliances as a stabilising force, rather than a force multiplier, in international politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

East Asian nations have become increasingly diverse in their ethnic composition since the 1990s. A large proportion of recent immigrants consists of women from China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines, who migrated following their marriage to male citizens from South Korea and Taiwan. To study this new group of foreign residents, the governments of both Taiwan and South Korea have conducted national surveys since 2000. This paper conducts a content analysis of the questions of these surveys to elaborate a criticism of the ethnic statistics produced from them. These surveys provide relevant information on this group of new residents, but they also have the potential to reinforce existing negative stereotypes due to prior assumptions that shaped the content of questionnaires. The analysis reveals that the production of statistics on migrants is influenced by three ideologies: assimilation, patriarchy and nationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the structure and evolution of programmes for exmployee financial participation in South Korea and Taiwan. Reasons for the changing incidence of these programs over the post-World War II period are examined. These case studies are then placed in comparative perspective. In Taiwan, several programmes play important roles: year end bonuses in proportion to salary, profit sharing, employee ownership plans, and combination stock and profit-sharing programmes. The latter are more effective in employee retention and in reflecting genuine sharing of net income than other plans, but have been perceived as contrary to outside shareholder interests, have attracted attention in trade dumping disputes because of their non-taxed status, and function less effectively in unprofitable firms. In South Korea, ESOPs are the most prominent form of financial participation, having risen strongly in the decades prior to the 1997 financial cirsis but falling at that time, due both to the crisis and to unfavorable tax law changes. Taiwan has embraced stock options and other programmes associated with a more entrepreneurial, risk-taking culture, in common with high tech US firms. Korea's ESOP programme has more in common with those of large, established firms in the US. These differences reflect the contrast in corporate culture between the two economies, with Taiwans's economy dominated by smaller and more flexible firms, and Korea's by large conglomerates enjoying benefits of market share. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In May 2019, Taiwan became the first country in Asia to introduce same-sex marriage. This article compares the path to same-sex marriage in Taiwan with the situation in three of its neighbours – Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea – where similar debates have proceeded without yet achieving marriage equality. Advocates for marriage equality in Taiwan's neighbours can learn some lessons from the experience of the island democracy. First, the struggle for marriage equality is a long-term effort that is built on progress in LGBTQ rights in general and on a broad coalition of supporters from civil society and political parties. Taiwan was already home to Asia's most vibrant LGBTQ community and movement, and has enacted anti-discrimination legislation. Second, the island has introduced gender education in schools, and this shaped the younger generation's positive attitude towards marriage equality. Third, discourses on rights need to be adapted to a country's culture and values. Taiwanese advocates for marriage equality not only talked about marriage equality as a fundamental human right but also stressed values such as mutual respect and a stable partnership and family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is a widespread policy goal in the 21st century. The aim is to protect people from financial risk while promoting their access to good-quality care. This study examined the social insurance systems of South Korea and Taiwan to explore the critical challenges of achieving effective UHC. By assessing the impact of UHC on financial risk protection (measured by out-of-pocket payment share and catastrophic payment headcount), we found that when South Korea inaugurated its National Health Insurance (NHI) program with a limited benefits package and high cost sharing, it did not reduce the financial burden. Meanwhile, we observed a drop of 5 to 6 percentage points in the catastrophic payment headcount in Taiwan, which offered a universal and rather comprehensive benefits package with a modest cost-sharing design under its single-payer NHI system. The political-economic context of the UHC policy evolution was further explored through an in-depth discussion. We conclude that to provide sufficient financial risk protection against unexpected medical expenses, the design of the insurance scheme, in particular the risk-sharing mechanism, not only matters but is also the key to success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the rise of domestic firms as leading manufacturers of clean technology products, Korea and Taiwan were the lowest users of green energy in the developed world. However, in 2016 Taiwan took a decisive turn to scaling up the use of renewables while lessening the dependence on fossil fuels and nuclear energy, and Korea did the same the following year. These significant events raise an intriguing question: Why were these countries capable of embarking on their green energy transitions and with such urgency when they did? I argue that the intensification of competitive pressures in the global renewables sector created the conditions for these states to muster a developmental response via the expansion of domestic markets for renewables. These governments used this opportunity to accelerate the promotion of cutting-edge energy innovations, which would help create new sources of national techno-economic competitiveness. My overall argument is that developmental-cum-environmental states possess national competitive advantages for coping with a global shift to renewables. The findings have implications for the debate over the popular idea of 'green growth' and its effectiveness in theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the conditions under which female legislators are more likely to act on behalf of female electorates through two underexplored cases – South Korea and Taiwan. Specifically, it investigates the effect of three conditions – seat share, electoral rules, and legislator characteristics – on legislators' sponsorship of women's issue bills using an original bill submission dataset. The finding shows that, on the one hand, female legislators' increasing seat proportion made legislators stress women's issues more and, on the other hand, new legislators elected at the party tier with civil society experience became substantially more likely to advance women's issues. In light of the evidence, this article argues that women's issues are more actively advanced when the political space allows women's issue-promoting legislators to pursue both electoral and policy interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated Taiwanese and Korean students’ perceptions of four aspects of English as an International Language (EIL): Current Status of English (CSE), Varieties of English (VE), Strategies for Multilingual/Multicultural Communication (SMC), and English Speakers’ Identity (ESI). The authors surveyed a total of 246 non-English majors at one university (N = 105) in Taiwan and at two universities (N = 141) in South Korea. Three major findings were identified in this study: first, these contemporary Far Eastern EFL students positively endorse general concepts of EIL. Second, both groups perceive their English ownership in a similar, positive manner in contrast to their own local varieties such as Taiwanese English and Korean English. Third, English listening materials that include non-native English-speaking (NNES) accents, and interaction between NNESs seem to be less accepted by Korean students than is the case for Taiwanese students. Along with practical suggestions, this study will add new knowledge to the current EIL literature and expand our understanding of this issue across different contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under what conditions does foreign aid in the aftermath of war foster state-building? This article argues that institutional legacy and continuity and the politics of aid may matter. In the aftermath of war, for an aid regime to reinforce state-building, it may need to ensure continuity in the strength of the state and to use recipient mechanisms and finance policies that generate a greater state capacity. The existence and continuity of a Weberian state may increase the likelihood of effective state-building. If the state is relatively strong, with a Weberian bureaucracy, aid can further reinforce it when aid is spent through national systems or is aligned with local priorities, with efforts to ensure that the recipient leaders reinforce state effectiveness by implementing policies that may require greater state capacity. Evidence for this argument is provided through pairwise comparison of state-building patterns between South Korea and Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article attempts to increase awareness and understanding of an adult’s perceived necessities in South Korea (hereafter, Korea) and addresses the need to adopt a consensual approach to current measurement methods in Korea. The research utilized an online survey of Korean adults aged between 20 and 69 years, across the nation of Korea. The results are used to draw up a list of indicators considered to be necessary for life in Korea such that, if people cannot afford several of the items on the list, it might be considered that they are living in relative poverty. As well as examining public perceptions across different social groups within Korea, public attitudes on the necessities of life from neighbouring countries such as Japan and Taiwan are compared to see whether there is a consensus on the basic necessities of life across East Asia. The implications for an East Asian poverty framework are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We apply recursive VAR/VECM as well as panel data models to examine whether oil price shocks have any significant impacts upon the Asian small open economies. We found no significant impacts on Real Gross Domestic Product (RGDP), regardless of model specifications. However, we detected positive significant effects on unemployment after three time lags and significant contemporaneous effects on CPI in panel regressions contrary to previous studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, I assess whether administrative procedural openness, via administrative procedure acts (APAs) enhances public confidence in the civil service. I argue that APAs increase governmental transparency, predictability and accountability. Consequently, APAs ought to enhance public confidence in a country's democratic institutions, ceteris paribus. To substantiate this prediction, I investigate trends, pre- and post-APA passage, in the attitudes of Korean citizens regarding their country's democracy in general and civil service in particular (as well as with a second, brief case study of Taiwan). The evidence supports my argument both cross-sectionally and over time, suggesting that passage of Korea's APA laws in the mid-1990s did enhance the Koreans' confidence in their country's civil service. Attitudes toward the bureaucracy, in turn, are powerful predictors of satisfaction with Korea's democracy, measured both absolutely and relative to attitudes toward the state of the nation 10 years prior. Several key findings replicate for Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various discourses and debates on the state - transnational capital relationship have emerged within the international political economy literature. The particular contribution offered here focuses on this relationship in three East Asian developmental states (Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan - the NIE-3) through the lens of foreign economic policy (FEP) analysis. In different ways their respective state governments have all worked closely alongside various forms of transnational capital in sustained yet evolving 'adaptive partnerships', and in accordance to largely state-determined FEP objectives. Moreover, these objectives broadly relate to the pursuit of economic security in the international system. While each of the NIE-3's own path of economic development has differed significantly, there nevertheless exist important similarities. This not just relates to being constituent to the East Asian regional economic dynamic but also their shared developmental state tradition. The relationship between the state and transnational capital is also key to understanding the NIE-3's foreign economic policy formation, although this has differed significantly across the group. In sum, this study analyses just one of many contemporary examples where both the state and transnational capital are working to congruent ends in their respective adaptations to the challenges posed by globalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is generally believed that high levels of military expenditures hamper economic growth because it crowds out investment. Contrary to this popular belief, South Korea and Taiwan have achieved a miraculous economic development while maintaining heavy defense burden. In this study, we investigate how defense spending affects economic growth in these two countries employing the Mintz-Huang model. The results reveal that there is no significant relationship between defense spending and economic growth in South Korea. However, defense spending indeed deters economic growth in Taiwan when its externality effects are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]