Cross-strait Relations Research Articles

Taiwan’s Secession Against Two Hosts: the Xi-Ma Summit and its Implications for Future Cross-Strait Relations

<p>Tajwan przyciąga uwagę całego świata ze względu na znaczenie geopolityczne wyspy w regionie Azji i Pacyfiku. Demokratyzacji Tajwanu towarzyszą ruchy secesyjne, co stwarza dodatkowe komplikacje. Prowadzi to wzrostu zagrożeń w różnych obszarach, politycznym, militarnym, ekonomicznym. Pomimo, że stosunki w Cieśnienie Tajwańskiej można obecnie określić jako względnie spokojne, sytuacja nadal nosi znamiona „niestabilnego pokoju””, używając terminologii zaproponowanej przez Lund Curve. W sytuacji gdy nadrzędnym celem Chin pozostaje zjednoczenie narodowe, większość tajwańskich wyborców faworyzują zachowanie status quo. Tym bardziej na uwagę zasługuje analiza bezprecedensowego spotkania prezydenta Ma Ying-jeou (Tajwan) z Xi Jinping (Chiny), które miało miejsce w listopadzie 2015 roku. Było to pierwsze spotkania tej rangi urzędników od zakończenia wojny domowej czyli od 1949 r.</p>

Does cross-Strait tourism induce peace? Evidence from survey data on Chinese tourists and non-tourists

Abstract Recent studies revisit the debate over whether tourism promotes peace via intergroup contacts. In this article, we examine the case of China-Taiwan confrontation and argue that the increase of Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan contributes to peace across the Taiwan Strait. Specifically, the touristic experiences and interactions with Taiwanese improve Chinese people’s understanding of Taiwan, fostering a patient and peaceful attitude toward the prospect of cross-Strait relations. With the survey data collected during July and September 2013, we find that Chinese people who were visiting Taiwan for the first time were less likely to support a rapid pace to the unification between China and Taiwan or unification by force than those who had never visited Taiwan. Additionally, the attitude is stronger among independent tourists than those who came in escorted tour groups. Our findings suggest that contacts between tourists and locals are effective in alleviating political tension across the Taiwan Strait.

Visceral politics across the Strait: Food and risk in China–Taiwan relations

The globalization of food systems has led to the increased circulation of food risks across national boundaries. While there is a rich literature on the domestic risk politics of food safety in China, much less attention has been given to the external dimension of China’s food safety issues and how these interplay with relations in the international arena. This article examines the visceral politics of food and risk in China–Taiwan relations. Drawing on the scandal of the export of tainted milk products from China to Taiwan in 2008 and the ongoing food safety debates surrounding the implementation of the Cross-Strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, we argue that perceptions of and responses to food risks cannot be considered in isolation from the political, economic and social context of cross-strait relations where different state, societal and media actors interact in the construction of risks. Rather than being a purely technical matter of safety assessment, the identification, representation and management of food risks are shown to be a social process that is contested at all times.

Fighting Swaying Imbalances of Powers: The Transformation of Spiritual Freedom in Tang Tales into Individual Freedom in Hou Hsiao-hsien’s The Assassin

The appearance of Hou Hsiao-hsien’s 侯孝賢 film The Assassin in 2015 and its distinction the same year with the Best Director’s award at the film festival in Cannes has launched an avalanche of confused and confusing reviews in print-media and on the internet. This partly may have been due to the gap between expectations the film’s attribution to the wuxia genre generated in the public and what actually Hou expects from his audience. Despite an unmistakable historical contextualisation at the heart of power-struggling between the Tang imperial court and the ruling house of Weibo, a state that manages to assert its de facto independence behind a diaphanous diplomatic veil of loyalty, the story of the young female assassin Nie Yinniang develops into a sphere of its own, which seems to extend beyond the confines of history and strongly suggests a freedom unspeakable within the intellectual parameter of Tang. This paper traces back the film’s narrative based on Tang dynasty tales and its cinematic language, and arrives at an interpretation related to contemporary social and political topics such as the female/male body and violence. It also touches upon the cross-strait relations’ issues and the “Western” idea of freedom expressed in an apparently traditional Chinese narrative context.

International Relations Theory and the Relationship across the Taiwan Strait

The purpose of this state-of-the-field article is to take stock of the use of international relations theory in the study of cross-Strait relations since 2000. To what degree have studies of cross-Strait relations made use of international relations theory since 2000, and to what degree has international relations theory provided useful insights for understanding Beijing–Taipei relations? I focus my attention on five topics in particular: the prospects for armed conflict in the Taiwan Strait; alliance/alignment politics and the u.s.–China–Taiwan triangular relationship; interactions between domestic politics (in Taipei and Beijing) and the cross-Strait dyadic relationship; cross-Strait economic integration in the shadow of political conflict; and the role of psychology, emotion, and identity in shaping cross-Strait interactions. For each topic, I survey recent studies that apply rigorous international relations theory to the cross-Strait relationship, and where appropriate I make suggestions for further development.

Taiwan in 2017

President Tsai Ing-wen has been plagued by controversial domestic issues, and her popularity has fallen significantly. While economic growth in Taiwan has increased, inequality and deteriorating cross-Strait relations have been hard on the ruling party. Tsai needs to work with the new premier, William Ching-te Lai, to regain people’s trust for the local elections in 2018.

Cross-Strait Relations in 2017: Political Confrontation and Social Economic Integration

Political confrontation and social economic integration co-existed between mainland China and Taiwan in 2017. While Taipei continued to consolidate Taiwan’s de facto independence through desinicisation in various fields, Beijing gradually exerted pressure in the political, international, jurisdictional and military fields on Taipei. The Chinese central and local governments have also improved policies to attract more Taiwanese capital and people and cultivate a sense of belonging among Taiwanese in mainland China.

중국공산당 제19차 당대회이후 양안관계 전망

중국공산당 제19차 당대회이후 양안관계 전망

Why Is China Unwelcome in Taiwan? Cultural Alienation, Democratic Anxiety or Economic Loss in Explaining Taiwanese Resistance to China

This paper explores the factors that affect Taiwanese citizens’ resistance to closer relations with China. Elements in Taiwanese society have recently exhibited a strong sense of anxiety in the face of a rising China. Distinct from the past military confrontation between China and Taiwan, more recently, Taiwanese citizens have been subject to a strengthening of cross-Strait relations and interactions, which makes their rising resistance to China puzzling. To empirically and theoretically explain why Taiwanese are resistant to closer ties with the mainland, we discuss three potential sources: cultural alienation, democratic anxiety, and economic interest. We test the effects of these three attitudinal factors on Taiwanese resistance to Chinese tourists, students, and workers using the China Impact Survey 2012 data set. The findings suggest that democratic anxiety, economic interest, and cultural alienation are all strong predictors in accounting for the public’s resistance to Chinese tourists and students, while economic interest is the most powerful factor in Taiwanese attitudes toward policies regarding Chinese workers. The findings provide important policy implications for policy makers in dealing with cross-Strait relations.

Transnational mobility, strong states and contested sovereignty: Learning from the China–Taiwan context

Mobility across the Taiwan Strait has intensified since the border was opened in 1987. The cross-border social, cultural and economic exchanges, however, have remained closely embedded in the nationalistic logic specific to cross-Strait relations. Employing a state-centered approach and building on a comparative analysis of the interaction between Beijing and two groups of cross-Strait migrants (mainland spouses in Taiwan, and Taiwanese investors in China), this paper examines the various ways in which a state may still exert influence over migrant communities in a context of increased mobility and exchanges. This paper argues that the nation-state may still shape migrants’ experiences, particularly when sending and receiving governments have unresolved disputes. Under these conditions, state actors may use migrant communities to achieve their nationalistic goals.

Should I stay or should I go? Migration trajectories of Chinese–Taiwanese couples in third countries

This article explores the migration choices of Chinese–Taiwanese couples who have met in a third country as students and formed transnational and cross-cultural families. Being subject to three sets of regulations (those of China, Taiwan and the third country) has put these couples in a more restrictive situation in negotiating their life choices and mobility. Using qualitative data, this article elucidates the migration trajectories of these couples, the conflicts they face, how they negotiate conflict areas and the strategic use of marriage in a third country to be together. This article finds that the conjugal lives of these transnational couples cannot completely disengage from institutionalized cross-Strait relations and state ideologies which eventually push them to stay in a third country rather than return to either of their countries of origin.

Are Taiwanese Entrepreneurs a Strategic Group?

This article applies the “strategic group” concept to Taiwanese entrepreneurs (taishang), who have businesses in both Taiwan and Mainland China, to analyze their political agency in safeguarding their collective interests. Based on extensive fieldwork, the authors look at taishang collective action in both formal and informal settings to assess whether the taishang can be considered a strategic group in contemporary cross-Strait relations.

China’s Military Reform: The Strategic Support Force, Non-Traditional Warfare, and the Impact on Cross-Strait Security

In late 2015, the Chinese leadership announced sweeping reforms designed to bring the military into the modern era, signaling a departure from a traditional over-dependence on ground forces and incorporating extensive structural reorganization to create a more balanced joint command system. The reform aims to create a system suited to the modern conditions of informatization, with direct leadership from the Central Military Commission, and is bolstered by the Chinese military’s advancement in progressive information technology, space technology, and cyber security. With the creation of a new Strategic Support Force (SSF), China has clearly demarcated the operational command of traditional and non-traditional warfare within the military system, representing a strategic and tactical step forward that gives greater scope to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to dominate in non-traditional military theaters. While the military reform has the potential to affect military strategy around Asia and further afield, the extent of China’s deep and far-reaching military reform, with a view to consolidating military capabilities under a joint command and giving full rein to non-traditional warfare under conditions of informatization, represents a particularly significant factor in the stability of cross-strait relations and security. This study will outline the creation of the SSF under the new reform, and discuss the development of China’s strategy and tactics for non-traditional warfare under conditions of informatization. The implications of the military reform will then be put into the cross-strait context, in order to draw conclusions concerning the potential impact on cross-strait security.

The Future Instability of Cross-Strait Relations: Prospect Theory and Ma Ying-Jeou’s Paradoxical Legacy

ABSTRACTThe 2016 Taiwanese elections which saw a sweeping victory of Tsai Ing-wen and the DPP have revived the question of cross-Strait instability. While observers have generally focus on whether or not the Tsai administration could cross Beijing’s red lines, few have taken into consideration the dynamic nature of these red lines, and how Ma’s presidency had impacted them. This article fills this gap by drawing on prospect theory hypotheses to assess the shift of Beijing’s preferences in the Taiwan Strait. It explains that Ma’s accommodative policy have left a paradoxical legacy as China is likely to be today more risk-acceptant on a comparatively wider range of cross-Strait outcomes, making cross-Strait relations more crisis-prone than they have ever been.

Impact of the Political, Economic, and Educational Contexts on Life Stories of Taiwanese EFL Teachers

Although numerous research projects have examined the lives of general education teachers, relevant studies in ESL/EFL are rare. The present study intends to fill this research gap, focusing on Taiwanese EFL teachers’ perceptions of the impact of the political, economic, and educational contexts on their lives. Thirty-eight EFL teachers in Taiwan, from diverse backgrounds, were involved in the study. Results showed that political contexts, such as divergent ideologies, and Taiwan’s capricious cross-strait relations with China, had influenced teachers’ careers. Economic contexts such as the economic depression, the M-shaped income distribution, and the relocation of labor-intensive industries to China have caused certain English language teaching markets to shrink and have had an impact on the life stories of EFL teachers. Educational contexts including the boom in universities and teacher education programs have also altered EFL teachers’ career paths. Overall, this study demonstrates that external contexts significantly affect some EFL teachers’ lives. More research can be conducted in different countries to shed light on this issue.

China’s Contingencies: Critical Geopolitics, Chinese Exceptionalism and the Uses of History

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the intimate relationship between narratives emanating from China and their uses of Chinese history, and how such perspectives inform China’s geopolitical positioning and practices in lieu of its purported ‘rise’. Taking inspiration from the deconstructive impetus of critical geopolitics, this article contends that these historical claims to China’s rise constitute deterministic accounts, hinging on the notion of Chinese exceptionalism to provide discursive backing for a Sinocentric geopolitical order in the coming decades. This in turn downplays ‘alternative’ historiographies that can shed light on how the nature of China’s emergence may be more dependent on and shaped by the external environment than previously acknowledged. Building on the historical-geographical expositions related to the idea of contingency, this article demonstrates how China (whether it be in the past or present) cannot be seen as operating in a vacuum but has to constantly negotiate and adjust its strategy of engagements/interactions based on the specific demands imposed by world politics. Specifically, by elucidating these dimensions through cross-strait relations between China and Taiwan, it is argued that understanding China’s contingencies can raise important questions for us to critically appreciate the contextual actors, processes and relationships that differentially impact on China’s engagements in the world.

Cross-Strait Relations and Regional Integration: A Review of the Ma Ying-jeou Era (2008–2016)

Despite the signing of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) between mainland China and Taiwan in 2010, Taiwan's future status in the field of Asian regional integration remains unclear. While Taiwan remains outside the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), China's rise and continued expansion in regional integration put increasing pressure on Taiwan to confront its political differences with China. This paper discusses the interconnection between regional integration and cross-Strait relations and seeks to address the implications such linkage entails. The authors note the exploitation of a two-pronged strategy by Beijing to pressure Taibei into confronting the political problem between China and Taiwan. In addition, the authors assess Taiwan's performance in terms of its progress in the establishment of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) from 2008 to 2016 under the Ma Ying-jeou (Ma Yingjiu) administration and identify the hurdles and prospects for Taiwan's future integration efforts. This paper concludes with a brief consideration of Taiwan's New Southward Policy.

Taiwan’s international visibility in the twenty-first century: A suggestive note

This paper provides a critical check to the ongoing, dominant blue/green debate about Taiwan’s identity vis-à-vis China. The colour blue is associated with those who support closer ties with China and green with those who support Taiwanese independence. The state-centric debate over unification, independence, or the status quo in cross-strait relations is closely tied to Taiwan’s national aspirations to enhance its international standing in the twenty-first century, a standing which is arguably diplomatically under-recognized. Based on a critical discussion of the blue/green debate, this paper presents two pragmatic ways of augmenting Taiwan’s international visibility through global recognition without jeopardizing national security or regional stability in East Asia.

Can economic profit influence public opinion? Observing generational change on cross-strait relations in Taiwan

In the new millennium, the growing economic interdependency across the Taiwan Strait has stretched politico-economic “ambiguity” to the limit. To many observers, the recent bilateral trade pact, the “Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement”, was thought to be the preliminary stage for further political integration. If the integration assumptions were correct, closer economic and social relations would have led to closer political integration between Taiwan and Mainland China (Kahler and Kastner, 2006; Kastner 2006a, 2006b). However, this evidently has not happened. This article examines the questions provoked by cross-strait interactions by analyzing the relationship between perceived economic cooperation and political attitudes. Using national security survey data, the article contends that, due to generational difference and lack of spillover effects, economic integration does not lead to a positive attitude toward political integration, but that period and cohort effects may gradually drive change in the future.

How Chinese Citizens Perceive Cross-Strait Relations: Survey Results from Ten Major Cities in China

While many studies have investigated Taiwanese people’s attitudes towards cross-Strait relations, few studies explore how Chinese people on the other side of the Taiwan Strait perceive the Taiwan issue. Using data collected via a telephone survey that covers 2,000 respondents from ten major cities in China in 2013, this article presents empirical evidence to fill this gap. It finds that most Chinese citizens’ attitudes are aligned with the government’s propaganda on cross-Strait relations. In particular, Chinese citizens have inaccurate perceptions of Taiwanese support for reunification with China. This article also finds that when Chinese respondents think that the city in which they live is more economically advanced than Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, they would support: (1) a faster pace towards a resolution, and (2) the use of military force to resolve cross-Strait confrontations. These findings offer new perspectives on studies of cross-Strait relations and Chinese nationalism.