Domestic Politics in Taiwan and Its Impact on Cross-Strait Relations

Abstract

Electoral politics in Taiwan reflects the popular ambivalence in articulation of its political and national identity. This ambivalence is testing the strength of nascent domestic democratic institutions. Taiwanese democratisation has also introduced a new variable in cross-strait relations that China and the US both have to contend with. Greater democratisation of Taiwanese politics and the struggle over the country's national and cultural identity is making the management of cross-strait relations more complex for all three parties, i.e., Taipei, Beijing and Washington.