As a real highlight in a very busy semester, the ERCCT team was pleased to welcome eleven young scholars from Taiwan and Europe to the second ERCCT Taiwan Europe Connectivity Workshop, held from 17 to 21 July 2023 in Tübingen.
Joined by ERCCT Visiting Scholars Prof. Anne Sokolsky and Prof. Lee Po-Han, Visiting Fellows Dr. Tsai Jia-Shin and Wu Peng-chi, and ERCCT Short-Term Resident Fellows Dr. Daniel Davies and Dr Di Qing as well as ERCCT Resident Fellow Judy Lee, the eleven external participants presented their current research projects and discussed them very lively and constructively at the University Guesthouse, so beautifully situated on the hillside at Lessingweg 3.
The first presenter on Monday, 17 July, was Ms. Huang Yun-Ju from the Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies at National Chengchi University. She talked about her project on security in the Taiwan Strait ‘The Edge of the War? An Analysis of China’s Red Lines toward Taiwan’, followed by Mr. Liew Zeng Ee from the Department of Politics at the University of Surrey speaking about ‘Understanding Taiwan’s International Affairs through Metis Diplomacy’, and ERCCT Visiting Fellow Dr. Tsai Jia-Shin from the Institute of Sociology at Academia Sinica, who presented his paper titled ‘Dwelling as the problem and the method: Struggling for alternatives to capitalism in urban and rural Taiwan, 1989 – 2010s’.
On Tuesday, 18 July, Mr. Chung Sanho form the School of Government and Public Policy at the University of Arizona made the start, delivering his presentation on ‘Local Elections and Resilience of Clientelism in Democratic Taiwan’. Mr Manlai Nyamdorj from the Department of Chinese Studies at the University of Trier then followed, introducing his study of ‘The Political Economy of Taiwan’s Media System’. Next in line was Ms. Huang Yin-shan, also from the Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies at National Chengchi University, speaking on ‘Interstate Relations and Military Conduct - Analysis of the Activities of Chinese Military Aircraft around Taiwan’. A very different aspect of security, in this case climate security and ‘Taiwanese Approaches to Future Climate Displaced People’ was treated in the paper presentation by Ms. Kate H Martin from the Institute for the Study of Asia Pacific at the University of Central Lancashire, who rounded off the academic part of the second workshop day.
The programme on Wednesday, 19 July, was then mainly dedicated to profound sociological research projects and opened by Dr. Wang Anne-Chie from the Institute of Sociology at Academia Sinica with the presentation of her project titled ‘Assembling End-of-Life Care Regime in Taiwan’. Ms. Chen Jung from the Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge followed suit with the presentation of her project on ‘Building pathways toward fatherhood: transnational reproduction of Taiwanese gay men’, before Ms. Ellen Kao from the Institute of Political Science at Academia Sinica presented her ‘Analysis of the “Lying-flat” Generation under the Globalized Structure’. Mr. Pei Hao-Che from the School of Geography and Environmental Science at the University of Southampton fit in neatly then with the presentation of his project titled ‘Looking for Changes in Homelessness: Voluntary-sector Practitioners and The Resilience Without Austerity in Taiwan’s Neoliberal Welfare State’. 
On Thursday, 20 July, the programme was opened by Mr. Tuyuq Rabay aka Ho Yueh-Cho from the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at SOAS who introduced his research on ‘Learning gaga in the fieldtrip: the Development of Indigenous Identity in Atayal Schools, Taiwan’. 
Apart from the project presentations, the workshop also featured contributions from the side of the ERCCT itself. ERCCT Director Prof. Gunter Schubert introduced the center’s objectives and programmes on the afternoon of the first day. On Tuesday afternoon (18 July) Ms. Paula Silvetti, an experienced city guide took the participants to a city tour centering on the history and the most picturesque historical buildings of Tübingen University and city. The following punting boat tour on the Neckar River provided for a very relaxed end of the day. ERCCT team members and fellows briefly presented their individual research projects on Thursday morning. A group discussion on ‘Taiwan’s geopolitical condition’ generated very interesting, insightful dialogue. The social programme featured a visit to Hohenzollern Castle (20 July, afternoon) and to the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart on Friday, 21 July, before the workshop was closed with a cheerful dinner at the Castle of Hohenentringen.
 

The  Young Scholars Workshop 2021 was successfully hosted online on Friday and Saturday, July 9 – 10. 
The programme, which had to be a shortened one due to the online format and time zone differences, was made up of project presentations and research papers by four young scholars, two from Europe and two from Taiwan, a lecture on publishing for early-career scholars and a roundtable discussion on      the question: “Is Taiwan ready to face a belligerent China?”
Opening the programme, after some welcoming remarks by ERCCT Director Prof. Gunter Schubert, at 9:40 Central European Time and 15:40 Taiwan Time, was Chou Szu-Nuo 周思諾from the Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies at the University of Ottawa, introducing her Ph.D. research on the lives and memories of the first generation of mainlander women in Taiwan. Both EATS General Secretary Dr Isabelle Cheng (School of Area Studies, History, Politics & Literature, University of Portsmouth) and Dr Lara Momesso (School of Humanities, Language & Global Studies at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston) discussed the paper very constructively.
Next, Dr Julia Marinaccio from the Department of Foreign Languages (Chinese Studies) at the University of Bergen, Norway, talked about her research project on the lack of an absentee-voting system in Taiwan and Taiwan’s overseas voters. Prof. Jonathan Sullivan and Prof. Wu Chung-li 吳重禮 gave valuable advice on the project. 
The first day was then concluded by Prof. Lan Pei-Chia 藍佩嘉 (Dept. of Sociology at National Taiwan University), who gave a lecture on academic publishing for young scholars. Giving very practical and useful advice to the workshop participants, Prof. Lan focused on how to make a Ph.D. thesis into a published book. In the ensuing discussion ERCCT Director Prof. Gunter Schubert also considered strategies for publishing journal articles and the value of book chapters.
The second day started with the research paper presentation by Dr Chang Chia-Chien 張珈健 from the Graduate Institute of International Politics at National Chung Hsing University about the causation of trade wars and the recent trade war between the United States of America and the People’s Republic of China in particular. In his analysis, Dr Chang combines the domestic factor of socio-economic inequality with the international factor of faltering hegemony. Prof. Saša Istenič Kotar (Department of Asian and African Studies at the University of Ljubljana) and Prof. Chris Hughes (London School of Economics and Political Science) kindly acted as commentators. 
Leon Kunz from SOAS continued the programme with his paper on different practices of democratic deliberation in the Sunflower Movement, arguing for a distinction between strategic deliberation as exemplified by the DStreet series of public forums taking place just outside of the Legislative Yuan and prefigurative deliberation like the more radically oppositional Liberation Forum or the Big Intestine Flower deliberations. Prof. Ho Ming-sho 何明修 (Department of Sociology at National Taiwan University) and Dr Malte Kaeding (Department of Politics at the University of Surrey) discussed the paper constructively regarding both its content and possible publication.
The final roundtable discussion gathered together Prof. Chris Hughes, Prof. Leng Tse-Kang 冷則剛 (Institute of Political Science, Academic Sinica), Prof. Lin Thung-hong 林宗弘 (Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica), and Prof. Shelley Rigger (Political Science, Davidson College) to discuss a question, which Prof. Schubert raised through relating the impressions he gained in Taiwan earlier this year when Chinese naval manoeuvres and incursions into Taiwan’s Aerial Defense Identification Zone became more and more frequent, yet most of Taiwanese society displayed an attitude of indifference toward China’s menacing gestures. The question thus was whether Taiwan is ready to face a belligerent China. 
Various perspectives were taken by the panellists: Apparent indifference or unwillingness to engage in military action may be just due the fact that an actual attack does not yet seem imminent and there may well be a sudden rise of fighting spirit if or when war really is on the doorstep. But willingness to fight to defend Taiwan may also be proven to be just wishful thinking, as Taiwan’s military capabilities are no match for the PRC’s, if Taiwan is not supported by foreign powers. Accordingly, the perspective was then also broadened to emphasize that in terms of military readiness, Taiwan cannot wait until war comes, but needs to consider whether its democracy is sufficiently robust to forge a consensus on defence, Taiwan has to rethink the distribution of the national budget in regard to national security, and needs to reform its military education system to make it more attractive for capable young people to join, it also needs to include other countries in Taiwan’s defence in a comprehensive sense. Keeping in mind that it is the military who would have to go to battle in the case of an actual attack, unwavering support for the armed forces from broader society is also an important factor for Taiwan’s defence readiness. Also important, yet difficult, is the question of how to measure the will to fight. Analogies maybe useful here, it was said, and the issue of climate change may serve as an example: If too little attention is paid to climate change, then the situation may turn out to be very dangerous in the end, but if one faces it with too much panic, then policy deliberation may be ineffective. 
These expert opinions were followed by a discussion with the audience before this year’s ERCCT Young Scholars Workshop was concluded with an expression of gratitude from Prof. Schubert towards all those who have contributed to the event.