INTRODUCTION
This term paper focuses on China-Taiwan relations in terms of One China policy and the Taiwan question. The paper will first provide an overview of the historical background of Beijing-Taipei relations and its ties with the United States. After, we will discuss One China policy and its different interpretations.
From an international relations perspective, the Taiwan Strait, one of the most likely conflict zones in the Asia-Pacific region, has been dubbed the “Balkan Peninsula of the East.” The status of Taiwan has been one of the most intricate issues in international relations arena for the past decades. The Taiwan question is essentially an extension of the “two Chinas” problem, which creates a dilemma for accommodating the existence of Taiwan under the vague concept of the ''One China'' policy (Hsieh, P., 2009). The Taiwan issue has been regarded as the most sensitive question between China and the United States. Although China-U.S. relations have made significant progress, the Taiwan issue concerns Chinese and American decision makers for many years.
The Taiwan question has been at the center of Chinese foreign policy ever since the founding of the PRC. Normally understood as a question of state sovereignty, territorial integrity and vital national interest, the Taiwan question can be discussed at four levels. First of all, at the domestic level, the question is one of state legitimacy that concerns much of the rationale for the communist leadership in China. Secondly, at the cross-straits level, it concerns the enduring historic dispute between the Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Straits over the reunification of China. Thirdly, at the regional level, it is part of the regional power politics among the gr...
... middle of paper ...
...udies Vol.7
5. Mao Zedong Waijiao Wenxuan. (1994). Selected Diplomatic Works of Mao Zedong. Edited by PRC Ministry of Foreign Affairs and CCP Central Committee’s Documentary Studies Institute. Beijing: Central Documentation Press and World Affairs Press.
6. Kai He & Huiyun Feng. (2009). Leadership, regime security, and China’s policy toward Taiwan: prospect theory and Taiwan crises. The Pacific Review, Vol. 22 No. 4 September 2009: 501–521
7. Kan A. Shirley. (2013). China/Taiwan: Evolution of the “One China” Policy—Key Statements from Washington, Beijing, and Taipei. Congressional Research Service.
8. Chiang Y. Frank. (2004). One China Policy and Taiwan. Fordham International Law Journal. Volume 28, Issue 1.
9. Patience, M. (2014, February 11). China and Taiwan in first government talks. BBC News. Retrieved from: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-26129171
For the first time in the history of cross-strait tensions, there was a real threat that Washington and the CCP could engage in war. Washington’s involvement would come in because of the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act. The implication of this Act is that the U.S. promised to protect Taiwan in the event of an attack. Therefore, if the CCP decided to engage in a war with Taiwan, the United States would have no choice but to support Taiwan.
Mackerras, Colin. “June Fourth.” Dictionary of the Politics of the People’s Republic of China. 1st ed. 1998.
Lampton, David M. The Three Faces of Chinese Power: Might, Money, and Minds. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008.
David M. Lampton, Same Bed, Different Dreams: Managing U.S.-China Relations: 1989-2000 (Berkeley, CA: California University Press, 2001).
The Taiwan-China conflict is complex with deep history of animosity and grudges and it is recommended that the President of the United States to encourage principled negotiation where the approach to resolution is focused more on the interest and reasons of the negotiation rather than the content and positions of both parties (Tuker and Glaser 24). The United States will just set the “stage” where these two parties can negotiate with a mediator that both parties respect which in this case is the UN. It is also in the best interest of the United States if these two parties will begin to negotiate and resolve their issues in peaceful manner with United States acting only as observer and avoid conflict with mainland China (Steffens 90).
China Rising invites people to gauge the Rise of China and its effects particularly on the East Asian countries with a new lens. David Kang argues that China’s rise cannot be compared with western nations from the past and it certainly cannot be concluded that its rise would provoke instability in the region. Kang introduces that “identities are central to explaining source of stability and potential instability in East Asia.”
Nathan, Andrew J. "U.S.-China Relations Since 1949." U.S.-China Relations Since 1949 | Asia for Educators | Columbia University. Columbia University, 2009. Web. 26 May 2014.
Brown, M. J. (2004). Is Taiwan Chinese?: The impact of culture, power, and migration on changing identities. Berkeley [u.a.: Univ. of California Press.
Rosemary Foot, The Practice of Power: US Relations with China since 1949, (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 1995), 96.
The article “U.S., China and Thucydides” (Robert B. Zoellick, 2013) addressed the security dilemma between the rising China and the U.S. through the historical story, “the Thucydides trap”. In addition, the chapter 15 in the book US FOREIGN POLICY, by Michael Cox and Doug Stokes, indicated the situation of changing East Asia, rising China, and the role of the U.S. in this region in different periods. Therefore, the materials have revealed an important question about Sino-US relation, which is should the United States cooperate or compete with the rising China?
Zhang, Jianhong, Arjen van Witteloostuijn, and J. Paul Elhorst. "China's Politics and Bilateral Trade Linkages." Asian Journal of Political Science 19.1 (2011): 25-47. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Dec. 2013.
Given these sets of circumstances, china, Taiwan and United States have much to gain and even more to lose if an armed conflict erupts in the Taiwan Strait. All three countries have political, economic, and national security issues involved and united states and china are both in competition economic...
Lieberthal, Kenneth (2003). Governing China: From Revolution to Reform. New York City: W.W.Norton and Company
Since the initial warming of U.S.-China relations in the early 1970’s, policymakers have had difficulty balancing conflicting U.S. policy concerns in the People’s Republic of China. In the strange world of diplomacy between the two, nothing is predictable. From Nixon to Clinton, presidents have had to reconcile security and human rights concerns with the corporate desire for expanded economic relations between the two countries. Nixon established ties with Mao Zedong’s brutal regime in 1972. And today Clinton’s administration is trying to influence China’s course from within a close economic and diplomatic relationship.
Turner, Oliver, “Sino-US relations then and now: Discourse, images, policy”, Political Perspectives 2011, vol. 5 (3), 27-45, http://www.politicalperspectives.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Sino-US-relations1.pdf