Taiwan In The 21st Century

As we look to enter the second decade of the 21st century, Taiwan’s quest for identity remains the most contentious issue in the domestic arena of Taiwanese politics. From here, it spills over into the cross-Strait relationship and impacts on regional and global security. Whether Taiwan is a nation state or whether Taiwan has any claim to be a nation-state and how Taiwan should relate to "China" are issues which have long been hotly debated on the island, although it seems that much of this debate is now more focused on finding an adequate strategy to deal with the Beijing government than on the legitimacy of Taiwan’s claim to sovereignty as the Republic of China. The collection of chapters in this book shed light on very different aspects of Taiwan’s current state of identity formation from historical, political, social and economic perspectives, both domestically, and globally. As such it will be invaluable reading for students and scholars of Taiwan studies, politics, history and society, as well as those interested in cross-Strait relations, Chinese politics, and Chinese international relations.

Throughout the twentieth century Taiwan was viewed as a model - whether in terms of a model colony, a model China or a development model. This perception was based on the notion of Taiwan undergoing an economic miracle and political developments. Yet much of Taiwan’s history is unique and may not be readily replicable elsewhere. Written by an impressive line up of contributors from the US, UK, Taiwan, France and Hong Kong, this book analyzes Taiwan’s economic and political achievements, and asks whether it is possible to identify through the experience of a single nation – Taiwan – the makings of a replicable model. This book will appeal to students and scholars of Taiwan, political economy, and Asia-Pacific regional development issues.

'. . . a welcome book, of particular use to graduate schools.' - A.J.H. Latham, Asia Pacific Business Review Over the past four decades, Taiwan has achieved remarkable economic growth. In this important book, a distinguished group of contributors employs a comparative perspective to explore the reasons behind and the lessons to be learned from Taiwan's success.

This unique volume highlights Taiwan's ongoing efforts to mediate between competing political actors, a means to ensure domestic stability and national security without severely affecting its continuous economic growth and sovereign status in the international society. Taiwan's Politics in the 21st Century concentrates on three general areas: domestic politics, political economy, and external relations. Written by prominent scholars in the field, including John Hsieh, Shelley Rigger, Cal Clark, Alex Tan, Joseph Wong, T Y Wang, Quansheng Zhao, Guoli Liu, and Chyungly Lee. It also provides an overview of Taiwan's process of democratic consolidation, unravels dynamic interactions among various domestic and international actors in policy design and implementation, and explores future challenges to Taiwan thus leaving readers with a better understanding of the political complexity of Taiwan's attempts to strengthen its democratic governance and institutions.

This book brings together a group of experts on Taiwan who attempt to analyse change on this dynamic island during the whole of the twentieth century. Thus in contrast to many works on Taiwan, this book shows just how important the Japanese colonial antecedents were to the formation of today's Taiwan and help us to understand the complexity of the problems this island will face in the twenty-first century.