Three’s Company: China and Taiwan Vying for Mandarin Education in India

With decades of stupendous growth and political détente between India and China, Mandarin has become an important human capital for Indians. India clearly shows a preference of Taiwan over China, when mediated between them for different Mandarin resources, even before the epidemic and Sino-India border conflicts. Recently, there have been suggestions to replace Confucius Institutes with Taiwanese institutions, and Taiwan has urged for strengthening cooperation with India in Mandarin education. This paper aims to discuss the feasibility for Taiwan Education Centre to monopolize the Mandarin education market of India. Through data collection and detailed analysis of literature by scholars of Taiwan, China and India, this paper argues that Taiwan alone is incapable of occupying the whole Indian market due to the inadequacy of Mandarin teaching resources and complex tripartite political relations. Moreover, the current trilateral strategies adopted by China, India and Taiwan dissuade the common interests. We propose a customization, cooperation and supervision model to advance Mandarin education in India, and further analyze the feasibility and potential resistance towards the cooperation. This paper is helpful to understanding the Chinese teaching situation in India. It addresses a timely question and offers possible resolution not only to India but also to other countries who are skeptical of Confucius Institutes.