Billboards showing a turbaned man holding a “No Entry” sign, put up by a candidate in Taiwan’s upcoming local body elections, have alarmed the island’s small but growing Indian community – and drawn a sharp rebuke from one of the country’s top officials.The signs were put up about two weeks ago in the city of Kaohsiung by Li Hongyi, currently the head of Gangming District in the city’s Xiaogang District, who is running as an independent candidate in the city council elections in November. The photos went viral on Taiwanese social media.
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When asked by local media, Lee was clear. He said that he was not against migrant workers in general, but only against Indian workers. The statement sparked an immediate reaction from Joseph Wu, Taiwan’s longest-serving former foreign minister and current Secretary-General of the National Security Council – the equivalent of India’s National Security Advisor.I feel ashamed when I see a local politician doing this to get attention. I condemn such despicable behavior in a very welcoming society. “I will continue to work hard to promote mutual cooperation between Taiwan and India,” Wu said. Despite attempts, Lee could not be reached for comment.Indians currently living in Taiwan — numbering just over 7,000 people, according to the National Immigration Agency, making them the ninth-largest foreign resident group on the island — say the billboards are worrying but not entirely surprising.
“This appears to be an extension of the anti-India propaganda on popular social media platforms like TikTok and Threads in Taiwan, which is being pushed by some countries working against India’s interests,” said Arpita Biswas, a marine sciences researcher at National Taiwan University who has lived in the country for five years.
She added that Taiwanese society was largely welcoming, but hostility toward Indians existed in a small section, and was amplified online.
“We come across anti-India propaganda posts almost every day. This is largely due to a lack of understanding of Indians and their culture due to limited communication between people,” she added.An engineer who lived in Taiwan for four years, and spoke on condition of anonymity, said anti-India sentiment has so far remained confined to social media rather than extending to daily interactions. “We have not encountered any direct racism from anyone here.
But we can definitely feel the undercurrent on social media, where Indians are being targeted in racist posts pushed by people with vested interests. “This candidate appears to be trying to capitalize on this trend to attract young voters.”
Media professional and documentary filmmaker Sovam Pal, who has been based in Taiwan since 2022, traced the roots of the campaign to earlier reports that the Taiwanese government was planning to hire 100,000 Indian workers to address the labor shortage. “A certain section of politicians in the country campaigned against the move, creating a kind of fear psychosis as if Indian workers would land the next day and take over the country.
“That will not be the case, there are many checks and balances in the hiring process,” Pal said.
