India is building stronger economic connections with Taiwan, with plans to transfer tens of thousands of workers to the island as early as next month, potentially infuriating neighbour China.
Taiwan’s elderly population necessitates more workers, yet India’s economy isn’t developing fast enough to accommodate the millions of young people who enter the labor force each year. Taiwan is expected to become a “super aged” society by 2025, with the elderly accounting for more than a fifth of the population.
The employment agreement is likely to exacerbate geopolitical tensions with China, which opposes any official exchange with Taiwan, a self-governed island claimed by Beijing as its own. China shares a Himalayan border with India and is separated from Taiwan by a thin body of water. For the past two decades, it has also been India’s primary source of imports.
A treaty with Taiwan does not imply that India is abandoning the “One China Policy,” which recognizes the island as part of China. However, New Delhi has not reaffirmed that view in public documents, preferring to cultivate an active unofficial engagement with Taiwan. Taiwan, where the unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest level since 2000, requires workers to keep the $790 billion economy running. Unlike other nations with which New Delhi has reached deals, Taiwan is providing Indian workers salary parity with locals as well as insurance plans to sweeten the bargain.
In India, which surpassed China this year to become the world’s most populous country, the government is pushing for employment pacts with affluent countries dealing with aging workforces. So far, India’s government has inked treaties with 13 nations, including Japan, France, and the United Kingdom, and is in talks with the Netherlands, Greece, Denmark, and Switzerland.