Thats probably more of a myth for comedy purposes. Taiwan has rampant machinery/truck theft. I have no idea how common cart theft is, but i highly doubt its anywhere close to machinery theft. Scrub the VIN and resell, or just part out. Industial crime is probably far more of an issue than personal property type crime. Just a guess on the latter.
All that is to say, taiwan theft is intentional, not so much random street punks. Thus, they are well versed in how everything works and are literate in how to logisically take but from someone in lightning speed. Manual transmissions arent like latin. Takes about 30 mins to figure it out for anyone that can already drive an auto.