US Taiwan Research Articles

Analyzing Biden's Approach to Taiwan: Patterns of Continuity and Change

The study examines the US policy stance towards Taiwan during the Biden administration. By studying the broad contours of the policy, the article examines patterns of continuity or change in the policy of successive US administrations towards Taiwan. Within this context, the study analyzes how Taiwan has configured the US-China and cross-strait relations. Furthermore, given the disputed status of Taiwan, the study seeks to determine the prospects for stability or instability in the Asia-Pacific region. Incorporating structural realism as a theoretical framework, the article adopts a qualitative research methodology, using content analysis as a research tool. It employs primary and secondary data using archival research. Rhetorical euphoria has made Taipei a flashpoint in increasing US-China hostilities. The article argues that the US and China ignore the ‘peaceful resolution’ of the Taiwan dispute entailed in their historic agreements. The Shanghai Communiqué (1972), the Taiwan Relations Act (1979) and the Six Assurances in the U.S-China Joint Communiqué (1982) all laid emphasis on Taiwan's peaceful unification. Contrarily, Taipei's greater international integration, diplomatic and military protocol, and initiatives like the Taiwan Policy Act have revitalized Taiwan in Biden's Indo-Pacific security agenda. The US Taiwan Policy Act has alarmingly replaced ‘minimum defense’ with ‘asymmetric deterrence’ in order to defend Taiwan.

Great Power Competition, Clientelism, and De Facto States: Transnistria and Taiwan Compared

Abstract To what extent can de facto states act autonomously vis-à-vis their patron states and domestic societies? This article draws on theories of clientelism in international relations to develop a novel argument explaining the agency of de facto states. Examining two strategic triangles—Russia–Transnistria–Moldova and US–Taiwan–China—it demonstrates that interrelated domestic factors such as robust political competition, democratic pluralism, reimagined national identities, and big business shape the autonomy of de facto states in Eastern Europe and East Asia. Furthermore, the structured focused comparison of Transnistria and Taiwan indicates that the agency of de facto states declines when rising parent states and dissatisfied patron states challenge the status quo, engaging in great power competition. Their autonomy varies across areas of low and high politics, as patron states prioritize military-security issues and interfere less in the economic and cultural affairs of the de facto states.

Anti-interference: redoubled focus of Chinese mainland’s Taiwan policy

International interference in cross-Taiwan Strait relations has accelerated in recent years. This article examines the intensifying, high-level, official interactions in which the US and some of its allies have worked with the Taiwan authorities to hollow out the one-China principle. This article also explores the escalating US–Taiwan military cooperation and the expanding security involvement of some states, which have disregarded Beijing’s heavy opposition and repeated warnings. Finally, this article explains the driving forces behind the internationalization trajectory involving the Taiwan issue and argues that the ever-increasing foreign intervention and involvement, combined with Taipei’s consistent endeavor to “pursue independence by reliance on foreign interference,” has put China on full alert. The internationalization momentum concerning the Taiwan issue has thus resulted in China redoubling the anti-interference focus of its Taiwan policy.

Taiwan in 2022

Taiwan had an eventful year in 2022. Cross-Strait tensions increased dramatically after Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei. China’s belligerent actions in response have invited international condemnation and triggered more official engagements between Taiwan and the global community. Amid this tension, Taiwan continued its democratic governance by holding local elections in November. A change in COVID policy led to a surge in cases, but the initial high death rate had declined by the end of the year, thanks to high inoculation rates. In a global economic slowdown, Taiwan outperformed its neighboring countries. With Beijing’s alignment to Moscow after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the close US–Taiwan relationship further strengthened.

Alliance Coordination: Explaining the Logic of Biden's Taiwan Policy†

The Biden administration is attempting to transform traditional US–Taiwan relations into a multilateralism‐based “US + alliance–Taiwan” interactional model, which can be conceptualized as alliance coordination. This article unpacks the logic of Biden's strategic thinking in the US Taiwan policy. Adopting an asymmetric alliance perspective, it argues that US allies' reactions to Biden's foreign policy and their ideological attitude toward China have interacted with the US placement of the Taiwan question on the agenda in the alliance system to produce different degrees of alliance coordination, which can be measured by the new typology constituted by seven approaches: all‐fields approach, pure high politics approach, high politics driven approach, half‐measures, low politics driven approach, pure low politics approach, and strategic inaction. Three cases, including the different reactions of Japan, European countries, and South Korea, are analyzed to demonstrate how the alliance coordination operates in realpolitik. Additionally, the assessment of this article reveals that Biden's alliance coordination would place growing strategic pressure on mainland China and introduces greater volatility into cross‐strait relations.

Trade negotiations between Taiwan and the United States

In November 2022, representatives from Taiwan and the United States took early steps towards beginning negotiations over a trade agreement that would focus on lifting non-tariff trade barriers. It is possible that an agreement will be signed by the end of 2023. If a deal is reached, however, ratification by both countries, and then implementation, will take years longer. A trade deal would serve as an additional pillar of the US–Taiwan relationship and would complement the increasing cooperation between Washington and Taipei on technology issues.

US policy on Taiwan 2002–2018

The Taiwan issue has always been the most sensitive and difficult in China – US relations. This article examines the US policy on Taiwan from 2002 to 2018 in the context of the Sino – US relations related to China’s territorial unification and sovereignty integrity. The article also concerns the global strategic interests of the United States. In particular, after the Trump administration came to power it fre- quently touched China’s bottom line of maintaining adherence to the One China poli- cy, which led to a rise of the Taiwan issue and aggravated the turmoil in the Taiwan Strait. The US policy toward Taiwan has changed not only on the issue of peace and stability across Taiwan Strait but also related to the increased risk of Sino – US mili- tary conflict. Therefore, it is very important to consider the US policy toward Taiwan during outlined period. The author adopts historical analysis and literature research methods, and based on a significant number of the scientific research results of Chinese and American scholars. The research content covers the Taiwan policy of the administra- tion Bush, Obama, and Trump. The author attempts to expose the strategic essence behind the US policy toward Taiwan, focusing on analyzing the relationship between US policymaking and the China and Taiwan’ relationship factors. The article finds that the US Taiwan policy can be generally regarded as subordination to the China strategy, but there are some cases different from it. On this basis, this article discov- ers variables of China – US relations, US – Taiwan relations, the United States Con- gress and Taiwan politics to prove the hypothesis that US Taiwan policy follows the China’s policy in the majority of cases.

From Strategic Ambiguity to Maximum Pressure? Explaining the Logic of the US Taiwan Policy in the Post–Cold War Era

How do changes in US Taiwan policy play out? What is the logic behind these changes? To address these questions, existing studies have formulated four schools of explanation, providing valuable theoretical insights. However, these studies have obvious problems with unidirectional dichotomy and thus fail to identify a causal mechanism explaining the long-term trajectory of US Taiwan policy. This article conducts a re-typology of US Taiwan policy to break the traditional strategic ambiguity–clarity dichotomy by establishing three key indicators and argues that the orientation of US China policy and Taiwan’s US policy are the two major factors triggering changes. By conceptualizing and operationalizing the two independent variables as engagement-oriented, coopetition-oriented, containment-oriented, and hedging/bandwagoning/binding, this article develops a systemic theoretical framework to demonstrate how the US Taiwan policy transits between strategic clarity, maximum pressure, partial strategic clarity, between partial strategic clarity and strategic ambiguity, strategic ambiguity, and controlling the pro-independent forces. This article conducts empirical studies by reviewing the transition of US Taiwan policy under different presidencies in post–Cold War era to demonstrate how the theoretical framework works in realpolitik.

Which Stock Market Index Performed Positively During The Covid-19 Outbreak?: From Economic Perspective With Differential Test Analysis

The purpose of this study is to research the world's major stock indexes that have performed positively during the COVID-19 outbreak. This study uses a quantitative method using different test analyses, by comparing the typical stock market index prices from January to August 2019, 2020, and 2021. The research sample used is 45 major world stock indices, with the source of compiling and collecting data on the investing.com website. The results showed that the stock indexes of US NASDAQ Composite (IXIC), Denmark (OMX Copenhagen 25), New Zealand (Dow Jones New Zealand), Russia (MOEX), Taiwan (Taiwan Weighted), and Turkey BIST 100 (XU100) had a positive impact and significantly during the COVID-19 outbreak. Countries that have a quick response in dealing with Covid-19, will have better preparations to prevent deaths and economic downturn, than countries that underestimate this outbreak.

The Biden Administration’s China and Taiwan Policies: Connecting the Dots

US China and US Taiwan policies in the first half-year plus of the Biden administration saw relations with China deteriorate and improve with Taiwan. This furthered trends of the Trump presidency and appeared to push the United States closer to a war with China. The author also looks at the power relationship between the two countries and President Biden’s desperate efforts to gather allies against China, making it a struggle between democracy and authoritarianism.

Introduction:

Introduction: Wendy Cheng (bio) and Chih-Ming Wang (bio) This forum originated as a roundtable at the 2019 ASA conference in Honolulu, Hawai'i. At a moment in which US–Taiwan relations had seemed to reach a new historic height under Donald Trump's right-wing, nationalist presidency,1 it felt important to name and articulate Taiwan's long and troubled relationship with the United States. Further, the conference's location in Hawai'i, touted since the Cold War by the US state as a crossroads and amalgam of "East and West" (a narrative that erases Hawai'i as an Indigenous place and Kanaka 'Ōiwi as a people), served as an apt setting for our discussion of Taiwan as an instructive yet neglected lens through which to view US Empire, militarism, multiple colonialisms, and knowledge formation. The islands of Hawai'i, moreover, articulate an archipelagic history across the Pacific against dominant narratives of continental expansion and civilization as colonization. Our forum follows on Funie Hsu, Brian Hioe, and Wen Liu's "Collective Statement on Taiwan Independence: Building Global Solidarity and Rejecting US Military Empire," published in American Quarterly in September 2017, which cautioned supporters of Taiwan independence to be wary of an alliance with then president Donald Trump. Instead of pinning the hope of independence on the US military empire, the statement encouraged supporters to build solidarity instead with "groups marginalized by American Empire and with other global movements for decolonization."2 As some Asian Americans—including many Taiwanese Americans afraid of a belligerent China—assert right-wing politics increasingly loudly and the risk of war in the Taiwan Strait increases,3 it is both pressing and timely to think about how Taiwan matters, if at all, in the US political imagination, and how Taiwan might navigate itself out of the treacherous waters of US–PRC contention that turns islands into frontiers of empire and reduces them to emblems of betrayal and threat. We seek to place Taiwan in the US political imaginary past and present and to imagine transformative politics out of contradiction and ambiguity, as we engage in the material and ideological politics of the US–PRC–Taiwan triangle [End Page 335] Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. "Conference notes" was created by Angel Trazo at the site of 2019 ASA Conference in Honolulu. We are grateful for Trazo's permission to reproduce the image here. and its implications for coalition politics in the larger Asian and Pacific island worlds. Individually and collectively, we consider how Taiwan's conditions of being have been overdetermined by the US military empire, and how understanding Taiwan as a frontier of empire can inform discussions in American studies about resistance and revolution, settler colonialism, Indigenous sovereignty, and coalition politics. By locating Taiwan in the US political imagination, we also reflect on American studies' origin in Cold War politics as it pertains to US imperialism in shaping political ideology and changing the world order—or, as Judy Tzu-Chun Wu puts it in her commentary on this forum, "how American studies and orientalism are two sides of the transpacific flow of knowledge"—a condition that badly needs dismantling now. The forum opens with two essays that locate both Hawai'i and Taiwan in transpacific Cold War intellectual and political history. Wendy Cheng discusses the 1960s–1970s case of Chen Yu-hsi, a Taiwanese student at the University of Hawai'i's East-West Center, whose arrest and imprisonment in Taiwan inspired [End Page 336] a broad liberal, left, and internationalist coalition of supporters; Yukari Yoshihara delves into the imperial origin of American studies in postwar Japan via the career of George Kerr (also a University of Hawai'i alum), whose sojourn in Okinawa and Taiwan was seminal to his vision of American studies. We then move into the present with essays by Funie Hsu and Anita Wen-Shin Chang: Hsu critiques bilingual policy in Taiwan as a sign of in/dependence where a form of benevolent imperialism harnessed Taiwan's imagination of the United States, and Chang considers the feminist and popular democratic praxis and potential of the Taiwanese state today, as expressed by Digital Minister Audrey Tang, to demand...

The End of Liberal Engagement with China and the New US–Taiwan Focus

Using neoclassical realist theory, this paper focuses on how the liberal logic underpinning the US engagement policy with the People's Republic of China (PRC) – to promote the PRC's greater marketization, internationalization, political opening, and even democratization – has shaped Washington's One‐China/strategic ambiguity policy since 1972. This approach is used to deal carefully with the Taiwan Strait impasse. However, as strategic competitions intensify between the United States and PRC, the Donald Trump administration is strengthening Washington–Taipei ties, in line with conservative nationalism, to counter a more assertive and authoritarian China. Declaring the failure of past engagement upheld by presidents following Nixon, the Trump government is less cautious about upsetting Beijing through the United States' more explicit backing of the island democracy. The United States’ bolstering of Taiwan's status, though short of recognizing its sovereignty, has received strong bipartisan support in Washington and is unlikely to be changed even if Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee, is elected president in November 2020.

An evaluation of an education abroad program on the intercultural learning and cross-cultural adaptability skills of university undergraduates

PurposeThe purpose of this case study is to explore to what extent US university undergraduates participating in a research abroad program through US–Taiwan Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE) developed intercultural awareness and cross-cultural adaptability skills. It also suggests additional program design features to enhance students' international experiences.Design/methodology/approachTo better understand participants' experiences in the PIRE program, this study adopts a mixed-methods approach. Demographic questionnaires, pre- and postsurveys, observational field notes and individual interviews were conducted for data collection and analysis.FindingsStudents perceived the experience abroad to improve their intercultural awareness and skills such as openness to cultural differences, coping with challenges abroad and effectively working in diverse teams. Specifically, quantitative findings reflected group gains in the areas of flexibility/openness and perceptual acuity, whereas qualitative findings indicated growth in students' emotional resilience and personal autonomy.Research limitations/implicationsAdditional data collection methods, such as pre-/postinstruments or a longitudinal study would provide a more comprehensive assessment of the impact of education abroad on students' intercultural learning.Social implicationsEvaluation of programs and outcomes can help identify areas to maximize student learning and assess the value of education abroad.Originality/valueThis is original research and makes a contribution to education abroad programs in postsecondary education.

A Comparative Effectiveness Study of Newborn Screening Methods for Four Lysosomal Storage Disorders.

Newborn screening for one or more lysosomal disorders has been implemented in several US states, Japan and Taiwan by multiplexed enzyme assays using either tandem mass spectrometry or digital microfluidics. Another multiplex assay making use of immunocapture technology has also been proposed. To investigate the potential variability in performance of these analytical approaches, we implemented three high-throughput screening assays for the simultaneous screening for four lysosomal disorders: Fabry disease, Gaucher disease, mucopolysaccharidosis type I, and Pompe disease. These assays were tested in a prospective comparative effectiveness study using nearly 100,000 residual newborn dried blood spot specimens. In addition, 2nd tier enzyme assays and confirmatory molecular genetic testing were employed. Post-analytical interpretive tools were created using the software Collaborative Laboratory Integrated Reports (CLIR) to determine its ability to improve the performance of each assay vs. the traditional result interpretation based on analyte-specific reference ranges and cutoffs. This study showed that all three platforms have high sensitivity, and the application of CLIR tools markedly improves the performance of each platform while reducing the need for 2nd tier testing by 66% to 95%. Moreover, the addition of disease-specific biochemical 2nd tier tests ensures the lowest false positive rates and the highest positive predictive values for any platform.

An Interdependence Theory of Wedge Strategies

Abstract A wedge strategy is a state’s attempt to prevent, break up, or weaken a threatening or blocking alliance. An asymmetric alignment consists of a great power (the alignment leader) and a small/middle power (the weaker ally). So when does the wedge strategy of a great power (a divider) towards a competitive asymmetric alignment work? I propose, based upon the ‘Crawford–Izumikawa debate’, an ‘interdependence theory’ of wedge strategies. In the case of an asymmetric alignment that is symmetrically interdependent, the wedge strategy of a divider that accommodates the weaker ally is most likely to succeed. However, a wedge strategy towards an asymmetric alignment that is asymmetrically interdependent is highly likely to fail. I evaluate the theory based upon four wedge strategies adopted in Cold War Asia through analysing American, Russian, and Chinese archival sources. As asymmetrically interdependent, the US–Japan and US–Taiwan alliances offset the impact of Chinese wedge strategies. Between 1955 and 1965, therefore, neither Chinese accommodation nor Chinese pressure could detach weaker American allies from the United States in East Asia. However, China successfully exploited the symmetric interdependence of the US–Pakistan alliance. Between 1962 and 1965, China’s accommodation of Pakistan prevented Pakistan from being used as an American base for containment purposes. Likewise, the Soviet Union took full advantage of the Sino–Vietnamese alignment’s symmetric interdependence, whereby Soviet aid to North Vietnam caused rifts in Sino–Vietnamese relations that eventually wrecked the Sino–Vietnamese alignment. According to the theory, therefore, given the asymmetric interdependence of the hub-and-spokes system, any Chinese attempts to weaken US-sponsored alliances in East Asia would not be effective.

Student learning venture overseas in the transnational research partnership – a Taiwan and US PIRE case study

PurposeTransnational learning has become a mainstream issue in recent years due to the rise of global education. There are many kinds of overseas learning, including degree-seeking, joint/double degree, student exchange, internship, service learning and so on. The scope of learning may involve research, teaching/learning and community service. The purpose of the case study is to investigate how the Taiwanese students participating in an international internship project of the US–Taiwan Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE) acquire professional knowledge and soft skills, including cross-cultural awareness, interdisciplinary communication, skill development and social networking. It also explores how a joint research project contributes into a collaborative educational program.Design/methodology/approachTo better understand participants' experiences in the PRIE, this study held three focus groups and seven in-depth interviews on the students, faculty members and project managers for data collection.FindingsThree major findings are shown in the study. First, participants agreed that the overall learning experiences in knowledge acquisition or skill development have been positive. Second, participants obviously expressed their greater interests in intercultural interaction with the locals, which did not happen quite often during the internship. Third, the extent of interest in applying for the PIRE deg ree program after the internship program is escalating year by year.Research limitations/implicationsMore investigation into participants’ social and cultural engagement in similar project will be needed for future research.Practical implicationsThe results will be implicated into other cross-border education project evaluation.Originality/valueThis study manages to investigate the cross-border research initiative from different participants' perspectives and received comprehensive feedbacks.

The Rise of Xi Jinping and China’s New Era: Implications for the United States and Taiwan

Xi Jinping’s rise to power has heralded a new foreign policy that is more assertive and uncompromising toward China’s neighbors, the United States, and the rest of the world. This change presents challenges for the United States and Taiwan in particular which must be addressed with a sense of urgency due to Xi Jinping’s ambitious objectives and his firm grip on the levers of power which increase the likelihood that the Communist Party and government of China will seek to achieve them without delay. This paper reviews changes to Chinese foreign policy in the Xi Jinping era and argues how the modernization of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) over time has increased the threat to Taiwan, with concurrent risks for the United States. Taiwan and the US can address the challenge presented by China by strengthening their relationship to adapt to the new era under Xi Jinping’s leadership. According to CIA (2018), China’s economy now stands at approximately US$12 trillion, second only to the United States (CIA [2018]. World fact book). Unlike in 1978, China’s economy today is dependent on access to globally sourced raw materials, and access to overseas consumer markets for its industrial and consumer goods. This dependency on overseas markets has increased China’s global presence and interests, driving the need to protect them. The Chinese Government’s now ample resources have been allocated to both hard and soft power means toward this purpose. The PLA has greatly benefitted from economic development and the expansion of the Chinese economy, transforming from a backward institution focused on private-sector moneymaking into the sharpest tool of China’s power and influence. Since Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, China’s foreign policy and strategy have undergone a dramatic shift away from Deng Xiaoping’s focus on increasing domestic productivity and avoiding potentially costly overseas entanglements. The confluence of accumulated national wealth, diplomatic, economic, and military power, and the will to use those levers of power, has dramatic implications for the United States and China’s neighbors. A more assertive China, confident in its wealth, power, and international status, is increasingly unafraid of overt competition with its neighbors and the United States, unwilling to back down or compromise in the face of disputes. This dynamic has resulted in a new paradigm in the Indo-Pacific region that is unlike previous challenges of the past 40 years. The shift in China’s foreign policy and the PLA’s modernization threaten to challenge the credibility of US security assurances and alliances in the region, making the cultivation and strengthening of the US–Taiwan relationship, and the network of US bilateral alliances in the region an urgent imperative.

Advanced runway groove identification

The automatic groove identification technique for runway and highway pavements is relatively new in pavement engineering research although many algorithms have been developed and proven efficient and successful in the last decade. However, the low-accuracy results of groove identification for deteriorated pavements remain prevalent. This study develops a software called NTUGroove which significantly improve the accuracy and efficiency of the groove identification under both good and deteriorated conditions. The developed algorithm includes Butterworth filter application, preliminary groove identification, geometric dimension calculation, false groove noise elimination, and mis-elimination compensation. These steps aim to include all potential grooves, eliminate the likely noises, and save the possibly misjudged eliminations. Four test sections with concrete and asphalt pavement provided by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport are used in the case studies to compare the performances of FAA ProGroove (with default or with threshold) and NTUGroove. Grooves in good or deteriorated conditions can be identified by NTUGroove with a mean error rate of 1.7%, and the corresponding geometric dimensions are analyzed. The precision and recall values of the confusion matrix are used for program comparison. The mean precision and mean recall are 99.7% and 99.2%, respectively. NTUGroove is highly effective in groove identification and provides promising results for groove quantity counting and precision and recall values, even for seriously deteriorated sections.

Accounting for the Recent Uptick in US–Taiwan Relations

This article assesses the Donald J Trump administration’s pursuit of closer relations with Taiwan beginning in March 2018, which some observers labelled as “playing the Taiwan card”. The US trade dispute with China was the backdrop. Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and her party exaggerated the significance of this as they head towards an election in January 2020. It was uncertain, however, how lasting US policies might be and if the trend would continue if and when the trade war ended.

Offshore wind’s key role in the global energy transition

Offshore wind is a zeitgeist technology in the transition from fossil fuels to low-carbon power sources. The way the industry has scaled up and innovated relentlessly, particularly over the last decade, is breathtaking. Some 4.5 gigawatts (GW) of new offshore wind capacity was installed last year, bringing the global total to 23 GW – enough to meet the annual electricity needs of more than 20 million homes a year. Quite an achievement given that there was next to nothing installed before 2000. This extraordinary expansion is set to continue worldwide, A growing number of countries are harnessing the immense, consistent, predictable and affordable power of wind at sea. Given that 70% of the world is covered by water; the majority of the global population live less than 50 km from the shore and the best wind conditions travel across the world’s oceans – we may wonder why we have not captured this resource sooner. The difference, like with onshore wind and solar, is that through greater deployment we have seen dramatic cost reductions, beating fossil fuels in many markets today. Even beyond the established North Sea offshore wind countries (including the UK, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium) we see strong growth also from the US East Coast, China, France, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and Baltic countries. This business is getting seriously global – but the world leader is the UK, with 7.9 GW installed across 36 projects, generating 8% of the country’s annual electricity needs. The UK is a record-breaker in a number of ways. It hosts the biggest offshore wind farms in the world, including the largest (Walney Extension, off the coast of Cumbria, with a capacity of 659 megawatts (MW), powering 600,000 homes a year), and the most powerful commercially available turbines (each with a capacity of 8.8 MW, in Aberdeen Bay, nearly 200 m tall). The future pipeline of offshore wind projects in UK waters is strong, with three more under construction (adding 2.5 GW), a further 15 consented (12 GW) and five others in planning (5.3 GW), totalling 27.7 GW. A new round of UK seabed leasing is due to take place this year, ensuring a sustainable pipeline of projects for the 2020s and 2030s.