Taiwan And China: Fitful Embrace
by Lowell Dittmer /
2017 / English / PDF
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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.
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.
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.
