In 1996 the Republic of China held its first open presidential elections in which the incumbent Lee-Teng Hui, a benshengren born on the island, held his seat with a comfortable 54% of the vote. The run up to the elections saw the occurrence of The Third Taiwan Strait Crisis in which the PRC unsuccessfully attempted to intimidate voters in Taiwan, sending a message that the elections of Lee would ultimately mean war. In response the United States under the leadership of President Bill Clinton, acting as commander-in-chief, sent not one but two aircraft carriers into the straits, indicating military solidarity with the ROC. The exercise in brinksmanship magnified tensions in the straight and possibly even galvanized Taiwanese national identity over a Chinese identity. Following the end of his term Lee was ousted from the KMT for taking part in the creation of the pro independence Taiwan Solidarity Union. From 2000 to 2008 the Pan-Green Coalition, a coalition of pro-independence parties with strong Taiwanese identity, governed the island of Taiwan. The period from 2000 to 2008 had many scholars wondering what the impact of Taiwanese nationalism would be on cross straight, Sino-American relations. The sudden surge in Taiwanese nationalist sentiment during the period of DPP rule brought about concerns that the concept was politically fabricated in order to better oppose the KMT, that the movements would lead to armed conflict in the straits, and that the United States would abandon the island should they continue to move away from their official policy. Of primary concern are the 4 noes that formed the bedrock of Sino-American relations over the straits until 2006. In his inauguration speech President Chen made a vow, As long as the C... ... middle of paper ... ...ainst the interest of The United States.(Yang 8) The most alarming concept of status quo comes from the mainland, that assert’s that Taiwan is a matter of domestic policy, a rebel province of the PRC, who will see eventual reintegration. (Yang 8) In a 2014 article published in the Asia Survey by Zheng Zemin, an analysis of post recession politics in Taiwan reveals the waning importance of the unification issue in favor of economic policy. Zheng Describes the cleavage in nationality as a political tool, used by the DPP to overpower the economic platform used by the KMT. (828) While Zheng observes that the amount citizens of the ROC identifying as Taiwanese has increased by some measures since 2008, he challenges the political nature, claiming that its legitimacy has lost clout due to the economic crisis of 2008, and sweeping corruption charges against the DPP. (829)
...ities as a responsible state holder. One of the consequences of the international community questioning China’s military capabilities is that the international community could potentially induce an unproductive arms race with China. If China is to participate in the race, China will have a weakened competitive position in the races of economic and intellectual strength. Secondly, China will lose the ability to use its army as a form of soft power therefore making it harder to believe that China can be a responsible state holder since it will seem like propaganda. In terms of China, the world is in a very exciting position with the promotion of the China’s model an alternative governing system is being offered. However, we need to remain vigilant and aware for just as quickly as China rose, it has the potential to fall as well if it doesn’t play it’s cards right.
Mackerras, Colin. “June Fourth.” Dictionary of the Politics of the People’s Republic of China. 1st ed. 1998.
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).
...with the world’s greatest powers. Yet, it must continue to deal with the domestic crises and issues that arise as China continues to modernize and open up to the rest of the world.
Following the Chinese Revolution of 1949, Chinese Americans and immigrants became the focus of Communist fears. Beliefs of Chinese as inferior began to incite anti-Chinese feelings. Everett F. Drumright, an American official, submitted a report warning of Chinese Communists where “he alleged that Chinese were culturally inclined to fraud and perjury since they ‘lacked a concept equivalent to the Western concept of an oath.’” Government action would soon exact actions to quell these
The author works around the concept of identity which he shows is common in East Asian region and influences the stance of a particular country towards China. He defines identity vaguely as “set of unifying ideas that focus primarily on how a nation perceives the world around it…” This concept of identity as main factor in determining the regional relationship is explained over three main areas. Firstly at the territorial level, China enjoys its identity as the center of all diplomatic relations and therefore a powerful and strong China is deemed good for the region. Second, Chi...
Lee, Emily Mei-Hwa. "Review: Is Taiwan Chinese? The Impact of Culture, Power, and Migration on Changing Identities." The China Journal No. 52 (2004): 207-10.JSTOR. Web. 18 Feb. 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.
Or is it: the issue of Chinese human rights violations and the fact that if the United States where to revoke the favored nation status of China it would have a profound negative impact on the U.S. economy alone.
... if we are to disregard Luciani’s deconstruction of the concept of modernity as explored above – which casts doubt over what it means to be modern – it is clear that even in Lipset's terms, modern day China is a testament to the failure of modernization's teleology. As yet, there are no signs of burgeoning political freedom or free elections despite the rising power of the country and the very real probability that it may soon challenge America's coveted 'last remaining superpower' status. Despite the superficial presence of MacDonald's, it remains fundamentally unrecognizable to Western eyes, and there seems to be little chance of it turning to democracy, so long as the regime continues to exercise authoritarian rule by denying a culture of openness in purported favour of one of ‘collective security’.
The U.S. will continue to talk and trade with China and long as that try to change their ways.
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...
...rk do reconstruct the context of the state of exception. During the Martial Law the state of exception was employed indirectly into the Taiwanese social sphere through the foreign policy that created a fragmentation of the political sphere and the social sphere. This undermined the Taiwanese society by shifting the social sphere into the zone of exception. Similar with the National Security Law, except it affected directly the civilians by limiting their rights by translating them into the zone of the exception where they were regarded neither juridically nor politically. As a result, this situation could be understood, as Diamond (2011: 21) posits, that democracy is lost as the level of freedom is in decline due to the bad governance as it does not grant full-fledged civil rights instead keeps civilians in the sphere of exception in case of the public resistance.
Yuan, Jing- Dong, “Sino-US Military Relations Since Tiananmen: Restoration, Progress, and Pitfalls”, Spring 2003, http://strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/parameters/articles/03spring/yuan.pdf
Inkenberry, John. “The Rise of China and the Future of the West.” Foreign Affairs. The Council of Foreign Relations. Jan 2008. Web. 9 Mar 2014.