My core belief about Taiwan's soft power strategy is that it emphasises the wrong story: the narratives of Taiwan's successful democratisation and its current position as the first Chinese democracy are routinely ignored in favour of attempts to label Taiwan as the preserver of traditional Chinese culture.

Taipei, June 11 (CNA) A Taiwanese delegation will try to help expand the country's participation in international affairs by promoting "climate diplomacy" during the Earth Summit slated to take place in Brazil later this month, environmentalists said Monday.

Three hundred Taiwanese students will travel to 30-plus countries this summer to promote cultural exchanges and enhance bilateral ties in what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs described Tuesday as the largest scale youth ambassador program in years.

The ROC Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced May 22 that it will stage a fashion show and culture exhibition in Taipei City to celebrate Africa Day. “The initiative is in line with President Ma Ying-jeou’s cultural diplomacy approach,” the MOFA said in a statement. “It is also an opportunity for the people of Taiwan to experience African traditions.”

Public diplomacy can be implemented as a cluster of measures that are more productive than the confrontational steps such as “checkbook diplomacy,” in which Taipei and Beijing competed for formal diplomatic partners.

As a struggle for a new narrative across the Taiwan Strait develops, it remains unclear what kind of collective narrative will emerge – if ever. Ostensibly, the KMT and the CCP are engaging in a mutual game of soft power politics that is moving beyond cultural exchanges.

Taiwan, a small island the size of Belgium with a population of some 23 million, is the mother of all status quo powers. If ever there was a country more interested in preserving the conditions of the here and now, it is this one.