國立中山大學亞太事務英語碩士學位學程 碩士論文 International Master Program in Asia-Pacific Affairs National Sun Yat-sen University Master Thesis 推文軟實力：檢視蔡英文政府的公共外交 Tweeting Soft Power: An Examination of Tsai Ing-wen Administration's Public Diplomacy Graduate student：劉艾倫 Alan Franklin Campbell Advisor：希家玹教授 Professor Kai-yin Allison Haga ​ ​ 中華民國108年10月 October 2019 1 Acknowledgements Thank you to my professors throughout my masters studies - Prof. Lin Teh-chang, Prof. Lin Wen-chang, and Prof. Jinhyeok Jang - for their instruction. Thank you to my classmates and friends, Lukas Noah House and Michael Tyler Skelding, for their encouragement and timely editing. Thank you to my advisor, Professor Kai-yin Allison Haga, for her advice and guidance throughout this process. And thank you to my wife, Christine, for her constant support and endless patience. 2 Abstract The practice of public diplomacy is gaining in importance among states, particularly with the growth of communication technologies. Public diplomacy is the way in which states utilize their soft power. This thesis analyzes the practice of public diplomacy throughout the history of Taiwan. It considers the sources of Taiwan’s soft power, and how it has been understood and used in different administrations. The current administration of Tsai Ing-wen is an avid user of Twitter. By collecting and categorizing the Twitter activity of President Tsai and the Ministry of Foreign affairs, this thesis is able to examine the direction and goals of Taiwan’s public diplomacy. This thesis draws a number of conclusions. While Taiwan historically counted on its geopolitical position to gain foreign support, it has increasingly relied on the soft power of its democratic political system. The Tsai administration’s use of Twitter shows the value placed in communicating with English-speaking audiences, the importance of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies, and the emphasis on building friendly ties with democracies in Europe and Japan. Throughout Taiwan’s history, including in the Tsai adminstration’s Twitter activity, the highest priority has been maintaining a close relationship with the United States. Key Words: soft power, public diplomacy, China, Taiwan, democracy, Twitter 3 摘要 公共外交的實踐在各州之間越來越重要，尤其是隨著通信技術的發展。公共外交是國家利 用其軟實力的方式。本文分析了台灣歷史上的公共外交實踐。它考慮了台灣軟實力的來源 以及如何在不同的政府中理解和使用它。蔡英文的現任政府是推特（Twitter）的狂熱用 戶。透過對蔡總統和外交部的推特（Twitter）活動進行收集和分類，本文可以研究台灣公 共外交的方向和目標。本文得出了許多結論。台灣歷年來依靠其地緣政治地位來獲得外國 支持，但它越來越依賴其民主政治制度的軟實力。蔡政府對推特（Twitter）的使用，顯示 了與講英語的觀眾進行交流的價值，台灣外交同盟的重要性以及強調與歐洲和日本的民主 國家建立友好關係的重要性。在台灣的整個歷史上，包括在蔡政府的推特（Twitter）活動 中，與美國保持密切關係都是當務之急。 關鍵詞：軟實力，公共外交，中國，台灣，民主，推特 4 Table of Contents Thesis Validation Letter………………………………………………………………..1 Acknowledgments……………………………………………………………………...2 Abstract (English)………………………………………………………………………3 Abstract (Chinese)……………………………………………………………………...4 Abbreviations…………………………………………………………………………..7 Chapter 1: Introduction……………………………………………………..………….8 1.1 Background…………………………………………………………….8 1.2 Objectives……………………………………………………………....9 1.3 Research Questions……………………………………………………10 1.4 Research Methods……………………………………………………..10 1.5 Thesis Statement……………………………………………………….10 Chapter 2: Literature Review…………………………………………………………..13 2.1 Soft Power According to Joseph Nye………………………………….13 2.2 Soft Power Critiques…………………………………………………...17 2.3 Public Diplomacy……………………………………………………....22 2.4 Public Diplomacy 2.0..…………………………………………………28 Chapter 3: Taiwan’s Public Diplomacy Before Tsai..…………………………………..33 3.1 Before Democratization………………………………………………...33 3.4 Democratic Taiwan……………………………………...……………...41 3.5 Taiwan’s Sources of Soft Power………………………………….…….53 Chapter 4: Tsai Ing-wen’s Twitter Diplomacy……………………………………...…..57 4.1 Tsai’s Diplomatic Policies………………………………………………57 4.2 Data Sources: Why Twitter?……………………………………….……62 4.3 How Twitter Works………………………………………………….…..63 4.4 Methodology………………………………………………………….…65 4.5 Limitations……………………………………………………………....70 4.6 Tsai Ing-wen Account (@iingwen)……………………………………...71 4.7 Ministry of Foreign Affairs Account (@MOFA_taiwan).........................74 4.8 Comparisons and Observations……………………………………….…77 4.9 Supplemental Data (MOFA Website)……………………………….…...80 Chapter 5: Conclusion……...……………………….…………………………….….….83 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………..……....88 5 List of Tables Table 1: Tsai Ing-wen Twitter Post Labels………………………………………………96 Table 2: Tsai Ing-wen Twitter Post Languages………………………………………….98 Table 3: Tsai Ing-wen Twitter Post Outside Links………………………………………98 Table 4: Tsai Ing-wen Twitter Posts/Month……………………………………………..99 Table 5: MOFA Twitter Post Labels…………………………………………………….100 Table 6: MOFA Twitter Post Languages………………………………………………..102 Table 7: MOFA Twitter Post Outside Links…………………………………………….103 Table 8: MOFA Twitter Posts/Month…………………………………………………...103 Table 9: MOFA Website Post Labels…………………………………………………....104 Table 10: Comparative Twitter Followers………………………………………………106 6 Abbreviations APEC Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation ASEAN Association of Southeast Asia Nations CCP Chinese Communist Party CPTPP Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership DPP Democratic Progressive Party DPU Democratic Pacific Union GIO Government Information Office KMT Kuomintang ICAO International Civil Aviation Organization ICH International Council for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use IO International Organization MOFA Ministry of Foreign Affairs NGO Non-Governmental Organization NSP New Southbound Policy OECD Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development PRC People’s Republic of China ROC Republic of China TFD Taiwan Foundation for Democracy WHA World Health Assembly WHO World Health Organization WMO World Meteorological Organization WTO World Trade Organization UN United Nations 7 Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Background In November of 2016, the election of Donald Trump shocked the world. Completely lacking in political experience, Trump had come to prominence as a celebrity businessman and television host. Despite this lack of experience, he was able to ascend to the highest executive office in the world. A key factor in his electoral success was his ability to harness a new and potent political tool: Twitter. This thesis did not begin as a study of Twitter. I have long had an interest in the importance of language and narrative to geopolitics. The case of Taiwan in particular seemed to be one in which stories matter as much as armies. Throughout my studies in the IMAPA program, I was fascinated by the importance of words to Taiwan; in its relations with the global superpower of the United States; in its tense coexistence of the People’s Republic of China; and its efforts to assert itself as a country, or perhaps the rightful government of all of China, or perhaps something somewhere in between. The lack of official relationships available to Taiwan led me to discover that much of the diplomatic work occurs, by necessity, using less traditional methods. There is power at work besides military might, and diplomacy can be done directly with the people. As I read the literature about soft power, public diplomacy, and Taiwan’s political history, I felt somewhat overwhelmed by the breadth of the topic. My time searching on Google frequently led me to the tweets of government officials. But few, if any, academic articles spent much time considering the opportunities such technology could offer to a country in Taiwan’s position. As I read these tweets, and started copying them down, I realized that I had happened 8 upon a rich and complicated well of public diplomacy. And with a lot of patience and spreadsheets, this thesis was born. 1.2 Objectives Taiwan’s diplomatic history is well documented. Works such as Gary Rawnsely’s book Taiwan’s Informal Diplomacy and Propaganda provide a comprehensive picture of Taiwan's ​ diplomatic struggles as quasi-state. In the last two decades, numerous works by Rawnsley, Paul Rockower, Jacques deLisle, and many others have studied Taiwan’s soft power and its recent public diplomacy efforts. However, it is difficult to find a work that views the history of the ROC, from Sun Yat-sen to Tsai Ing-wen, through the lens of soft power and public diplomacy. The first objective of this thesis is to consider the patterns of public diplomacy that have existed in the ROC state, from its earliest days on the mainland until the present. The aim is not to provide a comprehensive history of the ROC, but rather to see how the state has tried to project its own image, and how that image has changed over time. Public diplomacy is a relatively recent field of study, and the concept was not embraced by governments until recent decades. Therefore, it is necessary to extrapolate from the ROC’s diplomatic history more generally. The second objective is to study the ways in which Twitter is used by Taiwan’s government to advance its public diplomacy. Twitter is only one small way in which the Tsai administration employs public diplomacy. However, it provides a valuable insight into the goals and objectives of the government, particularly when it comes to foreign policy. Furthermore, its structure provides a wellspring of discrete data which allows for a degree of quantitative analysis that’s difficult to find in the study of public diplomacy. 9 1.3 Research Questions This thesis aims to answer the following questions: 1. What do the concepts soft power and public diplomacy mean? ​ ​ ​ ​ 2. What are the sources of Taiwan’s soft power, and how have they changed over time? 3. How have different administrations conducted public diplomacy?