Earlier this month I had the honor to speak about basketball as part of a sports diplomacy panel at the “Using Sport as Diplomacy” conference hosted by the Taiwan Sport Forward Association (TSFA), American Institute in Taiwan, and National Taipei University.

The two-day seminar was enriching on multiple levels, including the lessons learned from meeting and exchanging with international colleagues from Asia, North America, and Europe. Surprisingly, in a land where baseball reigns supreme, there were several unexpected lessons through the basketball hoop.

For example, Taiwanese colleagues shared on the sidelines how basketball had a long history and strong support. Recall that basketball was one of the national sports of China by the 1920s and 1930s as Andrew D. Morris’ work outlines. As one of the “big ball” sports, it transcended class and geography. When the Kuomintang (KMT) fled to Taiwan and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) took over the mainland, basketball followed.

What I wasn’t as plugged into was how its women’s national basketball teams (and basketball more broadly) have built a following and pathway for Taiwan to engage more proactively with the world.

Taiwan placed third at the first two FIBA Asia Cups for women (1965, 1968, 1970, 1974) and second at the 1972 edition, hosting in 1968 and 1972. Then recognition of “China” passed to the People’s Republic of China (Beijing); “Chinese Taipei” did not rejoin FIBA until 1981. By 1986, its women’s team was once again a top contender as it snagged bronze that year, 1988, 1999, and 2005. It also made its first of four-to-date FIBA women’s World Cup appearance in 1986.

Its youth teams remain strong feeders for the senior team. Just last summer the U18 team beat China for the first time at a youth competition in 20 years. So it was no surprise that two different women’s youth basketball teams were highlighted in this year’s Women in Sport International Photograph Awards.

All this despite the tensions with Beijing, including within the sports world. Just last week, former NBA star and current Taoyuan Leopards player Dwight Howard kicked up anger on the Chinese mainland for referring to Taiwan as a country, not an island. Other familiar NBA names are also shooting hoops on Taiwan like Jeremy Lin, while the French, Latvian, and Lithuanian national teams, will play pre-FIBA World Cup warm-up games there this summer.

Yet, although the hype for the commercial sell is on the men’s side, it’s the women’s game that—I am told—curries greater favor as they have won more international accolades. In this respect, it sounds like there are parallels to the Japan case, as Dr. Aaron L. Miller’s forthcoming chapter in the Handbook of Sport and Japan will detail.  

Thus basketball, for Taiwan, offers an interesting place for access to the wider international world.

And that’s just one of the many reasons why basketball is such an interesting prism within the sports diplomacy framework. So much scholarship focuses on the role of the Olympics, sporting mega events (SMEs), and football (soccer) in sports diplomacy.

Basketball, I’d argue, provides an equally valuable portal. Between the game’s DNA, global indigenous cultures, and history in many societies as a game “acceptable” for and played by women, it is fueled by a twenty-first century international NBA in which nearly one in three players was born and trained overseas (and many play internationally after their NBA careers). Moreover, whether through the 5x5 or 3x3 games, countries of all sizes across the planet can flex their muscles and aspire towards their hoop dreams in ways unrivaled in football or SMEs.

You can read my presentation on basketball diplomacy here.