Taiwan S Economic And Diplomatic Challenges And Opportunities

This book offers a diverse set of perspectives on the current state of Taiwan’s economy and international relations, equally considering the challenges and opportunities that could forge Taiwan’s future. Featuring a range of interdisciplinary approaches, this edited volume has been written by some of the leading scholars on Taiwan’s economy and international relations, as well as emerging scholars and writers with practical diplomatic, political, and civil society experience. Contributors cover themes from political economy and international relations to gender studies and civil society-led LGBT diplomacy. Readers will benefit from chapters outlining both the historical overview of Taiwan’s development and more recent developments, with several chapters offering focused case studies into Taiwan’s economy and international space. A balanced set of conclusions are reached, affording scope for both optimism and pessimism about Taiwan’s prospects. Taiwan's Economic and Diplomatic Challenges and Opportunities will appeal to students and scholars of international relations, economics, and Taiwan studies.

This book determines what roles business people in Taiwan have actually played in the development of economic diplomacy for Taiwan. It shows that they did nothing to prevent the crisis of 1995–1996, and that it was only when the US intervened that the crisis subsided. The book looks at the impact of the international system on the economic diplomacy of Taiwan, and represents a major contribution to the field of international relations by explicating a three-level analysis of the external relations of Taiwan. Using a bottom-up approach, it explains the activities of business people in Taiwan and clarifies their influence beyond Taiwan. The book argues that such activities have significant economic impacts and that their influence cannot be ignored.

There can be no doubt that China’s economic and political rise is having a stronger effect on Taiwan than on any other country, given the Chinese government’s claim to sovereignty over Taiwan, and Taiwan’s quest to maintain its democratic achievements and political identity as a sovereign state. Against this background, this volume deals with the ‘bigger picture’ of evolving relations across the Taiwan Strait, departing from the observation that China’s impact on Taiwan has become stronger over the last 20 years. This book analyses the ‘China impact’ on Taiwan in terms of its social, political and security space from both an empirical and conceptual point of view. It is the first comprehensive account of China’s multifaceted impact on the politics and society of contemporary Taiwan, written by renowned scholars from Taiwan, Europe and the U.S. The book covers a wide range of topics including Taiwan’s party alignment, elections, generational politics, cross-strait political economy, immigration policy and security. The contributors, political scientists and sociologists, highlight both the dangers and the opportunities of the ‘China impact’ for Taiwan and draw a realistic picture of the island republic’s current situation and future options in the shadow of its giant neighbour. Based on qualitative and quantitative data, this volume intends to fill a gap in the Taiwan studies field by studying the ‘China impact’ on Taiwan’s politics and society systematically and from a comparative perspective. By doing so, it will be of great interest to students and scholars of Taiwan studies, and East Asian politics and society more generally.

This volume arises from a major conference on issues of importance to the future of Taiwan and the region. With contributions by scholars from Taiwan and the West, the book is divided into sections on: political reform and development on Taiwan, Taiwan's changing political economy, social and environmental issues on Taiwan, Taiwan external relations and the future of Taiwan-PRC relations. Among the many issues addressed within this framework are the evolution of democracy, local politics, Taiwan and the international division of labour, the labour movement, environmentalism, international commercial links and the role of the United States in Taiwan-PRC relations.

This book offers a diverse set of perspectives on the current state of Taiwan’s economy and international relations, equally considering the challenges and opportunities that could forge Taiwan’s future. Featuring a range of interdisciplinary approaches, this edited volume has been written by some of the leading scholars on Taiwan’s economy and international relations, as well as emerging scholars and writers with practical diplomatic, political, and civil society experience. Contributors cover themes from political economy and international relations to gender studies and civil society-led LGBT diplomacy. Readers will benefit from chapters outlining both the historical overview of Taiwan’s development and more recent developments, with several chapters offering focused case studies into Taiwan’s economy and international space. A balanced set of conclusions are reached, affording scope for both optimism and pessimism about Taiwan’s prospects. Taiwan's Economic and Diplomatic Challenges and Opportunities will appeal to students and scholars of international relations, economics, and Taiwan studies.

Taiwan "is becoming the most dangerous flash point in the world for a possible war that involves the United States, China, and probably other major powers," warn Robert D. Blackwill, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Henry A. Kissinger senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy, and Philip Zelikow, University of Virginia White Burkett Miller professor of history. In a new Council Special Report, The United States, China, and Taiwan: A Strategy to Prevent War, the authors argue that the United States should change and clarify its strategy to prevent war over Taiwan. "The U.S. strategic objective regarding Taiwan should be to preserve its political and economic autonomy, its dynamism as a free society, and U.S.-allied deterrence-without triggering a Chinese attack on Taiwan." "We do not think it is politically or militarily realistic to count on a U.S. military defeat of various kinds of Chinese assaults on Taiwan, uncoordinated with allies. Nor is it realistic to presume that, after such a frustrating clash, the United States would or should simply escalate to some sort of wide-scale war against China with comprehensive blockades or strikes against targets on the Chinese mainland." "If U.S. campaign plans postulate such unrealistic scenarios," the authors add, "they will likely be rejected by an American president and by the U.S. Congress." But, they observe, "the resulting U.S. paralysis would not be the result of presidential weakness or timidity. It might arise because the most powerful country in the world did not have credible options prepared for the most dangerous military crisis looming in front of it." Proposing "a realistic strategic objective for Taiwan, and the associated policy prescriptions, to sustain the political balance that has kept the peace for the last fifty years," the authors urge the Joe Biden administration to affirm that it is not trying to change Taiwan's status; work with its allies, especially Japan, to prepare new plans that could challenge Chinese military moves against Taiwan and help Taiwan defend itself, yet put the burden of widening a war on China; and visibly plan, beforehand, for the disruption and mobilization that could follow a wider war, but without assuming that such a war would or should escalate to the Chinese, Japanese, or American homelands. "The horrendous global consequences of a war between the United States and China, most likely over Taiwan, should preoccupy the Biden team, beginning with the president," the authors conclude.

" How Taiwan can overcome internal stresses and the threat from China Taiwan was a poster child for the “third wave” of global democratization in the 1980s. It was the first Chinese society to make the transition todemocracy, and it did so gradually and peacefully. But Taiwan today faces a host of internal issues, starting with the aging of society and the resulting intergenerational conflicts over spending priorities. China's long-term threat to incorporate the island on terms similar to those used for Hong Kong exacerbates the island's home-grown problems. Taiwan remains heavily dependent on the United States for its security, but it must use its own resources to cope with Beijing's constant intimidation and pressure. How Taiwan responds to the internal and external challenges it faces—and what the United States and other outside powers do to help—will determine whether it is able to stand its ground against China's ambitions. The book explores the broad range of issues and policy choices Taiwan confronts and offers suggestions both for what Taiwan can do to help itself and what the United States should do to improve Taiwan's chances of success. "

Taiwan and Post-Communist Europe examines Taiwan’s economic diplomacy towards post-communist states in Central and Eastern Europe. The media, and occasionally academia, have often suggested that Taipei resorts to costly aid, trade and investment diplomacy to facilitate its foreign relations, whilst China engages in equally costly counter-economic diplomacy to keep Taiwan isolated. Czeslaw Tubilewicz argues conversely that Beijing’s diplomacy in post-communist Europe has demonstrated China’s reluctance to employ economic instruments against states violating the ‘one-China’ principle when cheaper (diplomatic) alternatives are available. Taipei, for its part, has demonstrated that promises of economic assistance are sufficient to induce target states’ short term compliance, whilst in the medium to long term Taiwanese economic assistance, conditional upon meeting political criteria, has proved inconsequential due to Taipei’s refusal to follow up aid commitments. This book examines the efficacy and limitations of Taipei’s frugal economic diplomacy in furthering its broader diplomatic objectives, looking at both Taipei’s failure to establish a lasting diplomatic presence in post-communist Europe, but also its success in securing ‘substantive’ relations with a number of major post-communist states, and thus opening transition economies for its exports and investments. The first in-depth study into Taiwan’s economic diplomacy toward post-communist Europe, this book will appeal to readers interested in Taiwan and China studies, diplomacy, Asian studies and international relations.