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Newspapers and archives from Taiwan indicate a long history of Taiwan’s commercial fishing in the Pacific that has largely been overlooked. Using these resources, this article analyses the relationship between the Taiwan government and Taiwan fishermen in the Pacific from the 1940s to the 1980s, demonstrating how non-state actors such as fishermen dictated Taiwan’s official engagements in the region. I first outline the history of legal and illegal fishing by commercial Taiwan vessels in the Pacific from the 1940s to the 1980s. I then draw on two case studies: illegal fishing incidents in Tuvalu and Australia involving commercial Taiwan fishermen, and legal fishing operations in American Samoa. These case studies demonstrate how commercial fishermen impacted Taiwan-government engagements in the Pacific and were viewed by the government as a liability. The article concludes by connecting Taiwan’s commercial fishing history in the Pacific with the larger history of Taiwan in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, scholars of the Pacific region have discussed the concept of Oceanic diplomacy. Oceanic diplomacy focuses on diplomatic practices or principles that belong to Pacific cultures and are distinct from but sometimes work in concert with Western diplomatic practices. The goal of exploring Oceanic diplomacy is examining the current value of these practices and principles, whether within a single country, among Pacific nations, or at the global level. Here, I apply Oceanic diplomacy in analysing Tuvalu’s 2020 Foreign Policy: Te Sikulagi (The Horizon). I first examine the main cultural concepts highlighted in Te Sikulagi – falepili (being a good neighbour) and kaitasi (shared ownership) – and how they function within traditional Tuvaluan diplomacy. I next examine how, after the publication of Te Sikulagi, these concepts were earmarked for use in bolstering relations with other Pacific nations as part of Western or ‘conventional’ diplomatic practices (i.e. signing diplomatic relations). Finally, I outline how these concepts are utilised at the global level in Tuvalu’s activism on climate change. To conclude, I discuss not only how Oceanic diplomacy demonstrates the existence of diplomacies outside the Western diplomatic paradigm but also how these culturally distinctive and antecedent diplomacies are increasingly influencing global diplomatic trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I analyse archival research and semi-structured interviews conducted between 2017 and 2018 in Tuvalu and Taiwan. I outline Tuvalu's performative cultural diplomacy – performance/dance-based cultural policies used for diplomacy in Taiwan and other international locations – and problems that beset this diplomacy. I first discuss the importance to Tuvalu of the performative/dance form fatele, especially as it relates to domestic diplomacy and cultural representation. I then outline internal and external tensions that arise when Tuvalu adopts domestic performance protocols in its international diplomacy with places like Taiwan. These tensions emerge because, in Taiwan, fatele cannot be presented as it would be in Tuvalu and because the Tuvalu and Taiwan governments contrast sharply in their imaginings of how performative cultural diplomacy should be realised. In the conclusion, I discuss how preoccupation with domestic standards in both Tuvalu and Taiwan hinders the possibility of developing bilateral relationality through performative cultural diplomacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]