international relations – Taiwan Insight

Taiwanese perceptions of diplomatic recognition

3 February 2020 Editor

Written by Timothy S. Rich. Taiwan must find new strategies in order to strengthen formal and informal ties. However, it should not over rely on expanding unofficial relations with the US or overlook the inconsistencies of Trump’s foreign policy that could impact Taiwan. For example, the Trump Administration’s decision to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras for two consecutive years provides a greater opportunity for Chinese influence in the region and greater pressure on Taiwan’s remaining diplomatic partners.

Democracy wins again — now Trump should set China straight on Taiwan

17 January 2020 Editor

Written by Joseph Bosco. The question now is how Beijing will respond to the Taiwan election results. Will it finally accept the reality that the people of Taiwan are so committed to their own democratic identity that they are “permanently separated politically” from China, as Richard Nixon belatedly observed two decades after his fateful opening to China?

THE YUSHAN FORUM: DEMONSTRATING TAIWAN’S FLEXIBLE APPROACH TO PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS IN ASIAN DEVELOPMENT

26 November 2019 Editor

Written by Alan H. Yang and Ding-Liang Chen. Taiwan has lost several of its diplomatic allies in recent years. These setbacks have prompted Taiwan’s government to devise new approaches to improving its international presence and foreign relations strategy.

The Median Line in the Taiwan Strait: A Dangerous Loophole

4 October 2019 Editor

Written by R. D. Cheng. On March 31, People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) warplanes flew across the “median line” in the Taiwan Strait that has long served as an unofficial airspace boundary between Taiwan and China. This behaviour was unusual and provocative move on China’s part — the first time in 20 years that such a deliberate incursion took place.

Cold War Border Politics: Chinese Maritime Captives in Korea during the 1950s

2 October 2019 Editor

Written by Yu-Cheng Shih. The fishing and sailing communities during the Cold War is a long-neglected subject in current Cold War scholarship. For fishers and sailors whose livelihood requires frequent border-crossing, legal documentation became necessary, lest they be arrested as undocumented immigrants or smugglers. In other words, the new Cold War border illegalised a considerable part of these people’s livelihoods.

Further Interpretations of International Law vis-a-vis Taiwan

19 September 2019 Editor

Written by Chai Boon Kheng. A popular contention among Chinese nationals and diaspora is that the “Taiwan question” began with the establishment of separate governance across the Taiwan Strait as a result of Second Chinese Civil War. However, Taiwan must be considered in the context of diplomatic history beginning after the cessation of hostilities between the Allied Powers and Japan.

The Youth Ambassadors and Taiwan’s Performative Cultural Diplomacy: “Some of the dancing, yeah, I don’t really understand [it]”

16 August 2019 Editor

Written by Jess Marinaccio. Attention to cultural representation is critical to creating a more equitable Taiwan, especially given Taiwan’s settler-colony status. However, problems of cultural (mis)representation focus the Taiwan’s Youth Ambassadors project on the domestic sphere, suggesting that culture is an ineffective tool in Taiwan’s foreign affairs.

Beijing’s Rise and Taiwan’s Decline in Africa: What Does the African University Tell Us?

14 August 2019 Editor

Written by Tobi Oshodi. China has positioned itself among many African leaders as the most strategic player on the continent; a leading development partner. As the former Senegalese President, Abdoulaye Wade, bluntly put it: a one hour meeting with former Chinese President Hu Jintao in the executive suite of his hotel in Berlin was more useful than the G8 meeting “where African leaders were told little more than that G8 nations would respect existing commitments.”

What Brings the US and Taiwan Close Together?

8 August 2019 Editor

Written by Yu-Hua Chen. “It is time for the US to abandon Taiwan.” The past decade has frequently seen influential scholars and experts on US-China relations propose this sort of argument. Ten years ago, Bill Owens suggested that America should start treating China as a friend and therefore halt its arms sales to Taiwan and review the outdated the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA). Bruce Gilley sold an idea of “the Finlandisation of Taiwan” in Foreign Affairs in 2010.

Challenges to Taiwan’s Diplomatic Recognition

7 August 2019 Editor

Written by Timothy Rich. Currently only seventeen countries maintain formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. So how should Taiwan maintain these formal relations? Absent Chinese pressure, most countries would likely recognise Taiwan. However, China rejects the possibility that a country could recognise both China and Taiwan…

Taiwan’s Think Tanks and the Practice of Unofficial Diplomacy

6 August 2019 Editor

Written by Pascal Abb. While its shrinking international space is a major problem for Taiwan, the resulting need for unofficial diplomacy has arguably been a boon for its think tank sector. Through their track-II-activities, experts render essential services to the government and can in turn achieve a tight integration in the policymaking process.

To Make Taiwan See The World: The Story Of Insight-Post

23 July 2019 Editor

Written by Hou-ying Li. After five years of voluntary work, organising over 50 volunteers, continuously publishing 2-3 articles per week, and 50k online visits per month with 35k Facebook fans, Insight-Post (洞見國際事務評論網) was finally fully self-funded and committed to making Taiwan see the world.

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