A list tells you who exists
Any competent researcher can produce a list of Taiwanese distributors in your category in a week. It will be accurate and it will be nearly useless, because it answers a question you did not need answered.
You do not need to know who exists. You need to know which of them will sell you, which will shelve you, and which is quietly working for the competitor you are trying to displace.
Read their existing lines as a statement of loyalty
The portfolio a distributor already carries is the most honest document they will ever show you. It tells you which principals they have kept, which categories they understand, and — if your product competes with something profitable they already represent — exactly how much attention you can expect.
A distributor whose portfolio makes your product a natural addition is worth more than one with twice the sales force and a conflict.
Ask their principals, not their sales director
A meeting with the sales director produces a presentation. A reference conversation with a brand they have represented for six years produces the truth: whether reporting arrives, whether the promised marketing spend materialised, whether they invested after the first slow quarter.
A partner who is uncomfortable putting you in touch with their existing principals has told you something without meaning to.
Exclusivity is earned against targets, never granted at signing
Exclusivity will be raised early and framed as the price of commitment. Occasionally that is sincere. More often it is an option being acquired cheaply.
Where you grant it, tie it to annual purchase targets with automatic lapse, and bound it by channel or region rather than handing over the whole island across every route to market. A partner who intends to perform rarely objects to being measured.
What the first quarter tells you
Contracts set the rules; the first ninety days set the culture. Watch whether reporting arrives on time and in usable detail, whether placements land in your target channels or only in their easiest accounts, and whether they press to widen exclusivity before meeting the first target.
A partner who performs in the honeymoon quarter usually compounds. One who negotiates instead of executing is showing you the rest of the film.