Mr. Tseng Hou-Ren
Director-General,
Department of North American Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of China (Taiwan)
WorldMUN 2010 Host Team Division of Public Relations is honored to share with its delegates and friends worldwide this exclusive interview with Mr. Tseng Hou-Re:
1. Why did you pursue a diplomatic career?
Tseng: To be honest, I didn't have any big epiphany. I graduated from the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures from National Taiwan University and of course I wanted to find a job after I graduated. At the time, I knew language would be one of my tools so I wanted a job that was relevant to languages. Before I looked for a job, that is to say, when I was still a student, I took the foreign service exam. Out of all the civil servant jobs, I found that the one having most to do with languages, is Foreign Service. So when I took the exam, I passed and I decided to go down this path. [laugh] So there's no special reason. Of course, the 1979 Kaoshiung Incident happened while I was studying at NTU during my junior year. Now that I look back, I was still confused about life, so maybe it was these events that influenced my later decision. But if I put it this way, it sounds like I'm trying to boast about it. But it was just that I had a language advantage and I found a job that had to do with language.
2. How do you want students to view Model United Nations?
Tseng: When I found out about this activity, I thought it had great meaning, particularly to the young people of his country. We have to remain connected to the rest of the world. To be honest, the chances of our country participating in international conferences are slim. In terms of Taiwan, there are very few international organizations we can participate in. We have a lot of NGOs, we participate in tens of thousands of international NGOs. But we participated in very few international organizations that involve governments. So the experience of attending an international conference and how to attend a conference is very lacking. Thus, I think it is a very rare experience to have and should be applauded.
3. What kind of role do you think the United Nations play in the international community?
Tseng: This answer could easily become very subjective. To many countries, the United Nations is something that they want to join because by joining it, you become part of the international community. But to other countries, it is something they can do without, especially to some of the bigger countries. Some bigger countries can control certain international organizations due to its influence. For example, the US wants NATO to listen to them but the UN won't listen to them because many countries in the UN do not like to do what the US says. So when the US wants to take some sort of action towards the European Union, it will want to go through NATO rather than the UN. So the role of the UN is different for many countries because each starting point is different and you will end up with different conclusions.
To Taiwan, the UN is extremely important because we cannot join even though we really want to. Each country has different interpretations of the UN, but the truth is that it is the one and only. The only international organization that every country can join is the UN and this can allow its mechanism to span all the fields. I think the WTO is also an extremely important international organization but it only focuses on trade. And the UN has many different types of organs below it, but since they all belong to the UN, all UN members can take part. Hence if one is not a member of the UN, then they are marginalized, so to Taiwan, the UN is extremely important.
4. What is your take on the many international events Taiwan is hosting, for example: the 2009 Deaflympics, the 2009 World Games and the 2010 International Flora Expo?
Tseng: I think all of this is essential. To be honest, diplomacy on a city level is much more flexible than traditional diplomacy on a national level. Of course, these are all results of time. Events like the 2009 Deaflympics and the 2010 Flora Expo are greatly praised and the government is very eager in supporting events of such kind and offering the necessary resources. I think all of this is essential.
5. What advice would you give to young people? For example, what is something that you didn't accomplish when you were young but you would if you could go back in time?
Tseng: It's actually quite difficult to give advice. I've been out of school for more than twenty years so the thoughts of college students now greatly differ from the thoughts of college students of my era. But I've noticed a phenomenon. I was just talking about this with a friend the other day. The percentage of students, especially NTU students, that travel abroad have greatly decreased. Back then, it would be “Come, come, come to NTU! Go, go, go to the US!” So your academic career would not have ended before you studied abroad.
Time has changed. Nowadays, there are too many other options. But there is something back then I think students may find helpful now. This isn't directed towards the subject but to the spirit. Back then, we had less material goods so we were more focused, we were more disciplined. I think this is essential for anyone who wants to achieve their goal. But the vision of students now may be much broader and they have much more talents than we used to have. But as for discipline and setting goals, I think they would have much better results if they followed our example.
6. What advice can you give to young people who want to follow in your path?
Tseng: This is a career choice. A career is like a marriage. Choose what you love and love what you choose. If you want to choose a career in diplomacy you have to understand it from the start. Don't have too many daydreams about it, and try to love it. You can't just shop around and leave whenever you feel like it. I think too many turning points in a life, is a waste. If you can choose a career in diplomacy at your crossroads then you must have the ability to learn. So if you can understand all of this in college, I'm very impressed. I didn't understand this very well at the time but I had already made a decision to pursue this career, and little did I know the frustrations that accompanied this path.
The ups and downs of this job cannot be experienced unless you actually do it. It's not all fun and games as people on the outside make it out to be. For example, there will come a day when we all face the possibility of not being together with our families. We could be sent to a very far place, a place where our children cannot come with us due to the lack of education there or a place that is underdeveloped or is a place with epidemics. These places are not suitable for your family and you wouldn't want them to come with you.
These are the things that people on the outside are not able to understand. But if we look at it on the bright side, our children might learn another language due to the different environments they have grown up in, and this would give them an advantage over others in the future. And our next generation would have better opportunities than others. So if you see and know the obstacles and the hardships of this path before you take it, you'll have an easier time.
I have one piece of advice for students if they want to prepare for this path. Sharpen your language skills. Languages are too important to neglect. If you can't use the same languages as the locals, then it is very hard to pursue any diplomatic work. Other knowledge, for diplomats, is good to know, that is to say, try to learn as much as you can about other things.
