Taiwan's Relations with Mainland China is the first book to deal with the role of Taiwan’s leadership politics, including the personal political styles of Lee Teng-hui and Chen Shui-bian, in the development of Taiwan’s mainland policy and the consequences for U.S.-Taiwan relations. Including analysis of the critical and volatile 1988-2004 period, the Taiwan Straits crisis and cross-strait tension associated with the 2004 Taiwan presidential campaign, Su Chi weaves in his personal participation in Taiwan policy making during critical periods in Taiwan’s diplomatic history to provide insight and information on cross-strait relations that is not available elsewhere As a study of Taiwan’s mainland and US policy this will be a fascinating read for students and scholars of Taiwan Politics, Chinese Foreign Policy and East Asian Security studies alike.

The future of the Taiwan Strait is more wide open than at any other time in recent decades. Tensions between China and Taiwan have eased since 2008. But the movement toward full rapprochement remains fragile. Whether the two sides of the Strait can sustain and expand a cooperative relationship after years of mutual distrust and fear is still uncertain. The waters of the Strait are uncharted, and each side worries about shoals beneath the surface. The current engagement between Beijing and Taipei may make possible a solution to their six-decade-long dispute. Whether, when, and how that might happen is, however, shrouded in doubt. China fears the island's permanent separation, by way of either an overt move to de jure independence or continued refusal to unify with the mainland. Taiwan fears subordination to an authoritarian regime that does not have Taipei's interests at heart. And the United States worries about the stability of the East Asian region. Richard Bush, who studied issues surrounding Taiwan during almost twenty years in the U.S. government, explains the current state of relations between China and Taiwan, providing the details of what led to the current situation. And he extrapolates on the likely future of cross-Strait relations. Bush also discusses America's stake, analyzing possible ramifications for U.S. interests in the critically important East Asia region and recommends steps to protect those interests. "At the heart of the [Taiwan conundrum] is a question of definition. Does the dispute stem from the protracted division of the Chinese state after World War II, or does the Republic of China on Taiwan in some sense constitute a successor state of the old Republic of China (ROC), one on a par with the People's Republic of China on the Chinese mainland? Whether and how the unification of the two entities might occur hinges on the answer. Indeed, I have argued that the core of the dispute between the two sides has been their disagreement over whether the Republic of China—or Taiwan—is a sovereign entity for purposes of cross-Strait relations. It follows that if unification is a real option, the two sides must form a political union that bridges the disagreement over the island's legal status. Is that possible?"—from the Introduction

This book traces the development of Taiwan’s relations with its diplomatic partners and its policy towards the political opponents of its political opponent - mainland China. Paying particular attention to the powers that could exercise great influence in the future of East Asia, China-Taiwan Relations in a Global Context examines the main diplomatic strategies of Taiwan and its counterparts and the major problems for Taiwanese foreign relations. To date there is very little scholarship which examines the ‘Taiwan Issue’ outside of the triangular Beijing-Washington-Taipei framework, this book does exactly that. The contributors examine the development of Taiwan’s relationship with less prominent countries and governments, and attempt to ascertain how such examinations could give rise to new variables that help explain the strategy and purpose of Taiwan’s foreign policy, as well as the reaction and response of mainland China. This book provides readers with vital information about Taiwan’s foreign policymaking and introduces rarely told stories about Taiwan’s foreign relations. The research demonstrates the ceaseless and unyielding diplomatic efforts of the Taiwanese for survival in a shrunken international space and renders for readers a better understanding of the complexity of Taiwan’s relations with the rest of the world. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in Taiwan studies, Chinese politics, Cross-Strait relations and Asian foreign policy.

At publication date, a free ebook version of this title will be available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. China’s relation to Taiwan has been in constant contention since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in October 1949 and the creation of the defeated Kuomintang (KMT) exile regime on the island two months later. The island’s autonomous sovereignty has continually been challenged, initially because of the KMT’s insistence that it continue to represent not just Taiwan but all of China—and later because Taiwan refused to cede sovereignty to the then-dominant power that had arisen on the other side of the Taiwan Strait. One thing that makes Taiwan so politically difficult and yet so intellectually fascinating is that it ­­is not merely a security problem, but a ganglion of interrelated puzzles. The optimistic hope of the Ma Ying-jeou administration for a new era of peace and cooperation foundered on a landslide victory by the Democratic Progressive Party, which has made clear its intent to distance Taiwan from China’s political embrace. The Taiwanese are now waiting with bated breath as the relationship tautens. Why did détente fail, and what chance does Taiwan have without it? Contributors to this volume focus on three aspects of the evolving quandary: nationalistic identity, social economy, and political strategy.

Taiwan and the Rise of China examines one of the fast evolving, yet very volatile, fragile and asymmetric, bilateral relations in East Asia. The insightful analyses provided by the experts of China studies should be of great interest to scholars, students and policy makers.

Written by the former chairman and managing director of the American Institute in Taiwan, this book sheds new light on key topics in the history of U.S.-Taiwan relations. It fills an important gap in our understanding of how the U.S. government addressed Taiwan and the Taiwan Strait issue from the early 1940s to the present. One theme that runs through these essays is the series of obstacles erected that denied the people of Taiwan a say in shaping their own destiny: Franklin Roosevelt chose to return Taiwan to mainland China for geopolitical reasons; there was little pressure on the Kuomintang to reform its authoritarian rule until Congress got involved in the early 1980s; Chiang Kai-shek spurned American efforts in the 1960s to keep Taiwan in international organizations; and behind the ROC's back, the Nixon, Carter, and Reagan administrations negotiated agreements with the PRC that undermined Taiwan's position. In addition to discussing how the United States reacted to key human rights cases from the 1940s to the 1980s, the author also discusses the Bush and Clinton administrations' efforts to preserve U.S. interests while accommodating new forces in the region. All these episodes have an enduring relevance for the people of Taiwan, and in his conclusion the author discusses where the relationship stands today. The book includes related documents that helped shape the U.S.-Taiwan relationship.

This book critically assesses the implementation of the "one country, two systems" in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) from the political, judicial, legal, economic and societal dimensions. The author contends that there has been a gradual process of mainlandization of the HKSAR, meaning that Hong Kong is increasingly economically dependent on the People's Republic of China (PRC), politically deferent to the central government on the scope and pace of democratic reforms, socially more patriotic toward the motherland and more prone to media self-censorship, and judicially more vulnerable to the interpretation of the Basic Law by the National People's Congress. This book aims to achieve a breakthrough in relating the development of Hong Kong politics to the future of mainland China and Taiwan. By broadening the focus of the "one country, two systems" from governance to the process of Sino-British negotiations and their thrust-building efforts, this book argues that the diplomats from mainland China and Taiwan can learn from the ways in which Hong Kong's political future was settled in 1982–1984. This is a book for students, researchers, scholars, diplomats and lay people.