Taiwan Insight

Written by Adrienne Wu and Marshall Reid. For the United Kingdom, 2022 was a year of significant change, particularly in its approach to the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Following years of relatively cordial UK-PRC relations, London followed the example of many other European states by shifting to a far more sceptical, confrontational policy toward Beijing. While this transformation was the product of various factors—from growing concerns regarding China’s human rights abuses to rising awareness of the PRC’s coercive economic policies—it was heavily influenced by domestic political manoeuvring. Nowhere was this more evident than in the competition between Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak to succeed Boris Johnson as prime minister, in which both candidates sought to frame themselves as the most tough-on-China. In a move emblematic of this game of China-sceptic one-upmanship, Sunak made the bold claim that he would close all of the UK’s remaining Confucius Institutes, the PRC’s international Mandarin language learning centres.

“Election” as a Consensus: The Changing Connotation of Taiwanese Local Autonomy in Postwar East Asia (1945–1947)

1 May 2019 Editor

Written by Chao-Hsuan Chen. In the past two decades, a number of researchers have sought to determine how the process of social protest after 1970s became the turning point in Taiwan’s democratization. However, the authoritarian Kuomintang’s (KMT) process of shaping the local electoral system, especially in the 1950s, has seldom been the subject of concern.

How the Subaltern Feels? A Dialogue on Emotions, Field-work and Subalternity

30 April 2019 Editor

Written by Beatrice Zani and Lara Momesso. Marriage migration is a glocal phenomenon that refers to the interlink between marriage and mobility within a globalised world. During the last decades, Taiwan has become an illustrative site for global marriages: countries such as China, Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia are the main sending societies of females who decide to marry abroad.

International Human Rights Law, Constitution and ‘A Nation Founded upon the Principles of Human Rights’

29 April 2019 Editor

Written by Kuan-Wei Chen. In Taiwan, which experienced authoritarian rule after World War II, the pursuit of human rights protection was an important task in the process of democratization. The first political party rotation took place in 2000, and during the inauguration of President Chen Shui-bian from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), he declared the important policy guidelines of ‘a nation founded upon the principles of human rights as a goal.

Mao and Chiang’s Geming (Revolution) for Recognition: The Second Taiwan Strait Crisis, the Great Leap Forward and the Project National Glory, 1958-1972

26 April 2019 Editor

Written by Ko-Hang Liao. Mao could be considered the final winner in the diplomatic arena as the PRC eventually won the competition to be recognised as the legitimate China. However, one thing that was outside of his expectation was that the current status quo across the Taiwan Strait was established after the crisis – after more than 60 years it remains the last large-scale military confrontation between both sides.

Climate change politics: can these raise Taiwan’s international recognition?

25 April 2019 Editor

Written by Simona A. Grano. Taiwan should pursue its plan to reduce greenhouse gases thereby killing two birds with one stone: lowering domestic pollution and attracting international benevolence and visibility by portraying itself as a capable, self-sacrificing and noble ecological crusader.

Encountering Perpetrators in White Terror Literature: Exploring Traumatic History and the Grey Zone

17 April 2019 Editor

Written by Chih-hen Chang. In May 2018, Taiwan founded the Transitional Justice Commission to address the historical trauma of the White Terror, which refers to the massive suppression of political dissidents from 1949 to 1987 in the name of safeguarding the nation against communist intrusion.

Rethinking Diplomacy and its Cultural, Social, and Political Contexts: The Diplomacies of Tuvalu, the Pacific, and Taiwan

16 April 2019 Editor

Conceptions of diplomacy held in Taiwan and Pacific nations like Tuvalu, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, and Palau have often come into conflict. One example is how Taiwan’s presidential visits to the Pacific have been conducted and received. Since the Chen Shui-bian administration came to power in 2000, Taiwanese presidents have attempted to visit most if not all of Taiwan’s allies. However, in the Pacific, these visits are often quite abbreviated.

Losing Burkina Faso and Gripping eSwatini: A Comparative Study of Taiwan’s Diplomacy in Sub-Saharan Africa

15 April 2019 Editor

Written by Megan Convielle. Given these factors of regional pressure, security, and internal political structure, it is important to re-evaluate the framework that gauges the role of diplomatic relations for the future of Taiwanese foreign policy. Previous research has shown that economic assistance plays a large role in small-state diplomacy, but this framework appears to be outdated in how Taiwan’s diplomatic relations are currently shifting.

Western Xia Hotel and the Paradox of Becoming (non)-Taiwanese: The Identity Politics of Second-Generation Mainland Writers

12 April 2019 Editor

Written by Fangmei Lin. What is emphasized by Luo as “becoming non-human” is, in fact, becoming non-Taiwanese. The entire loop of becoming eventually demonstrates the paradox of the Taiwanese: unending deferral and the situation of absence constitute the meaning of being and becoming (non)-Taiwanese.

Taiwan: A Thriving Beacon of Democracy in East Asia 40 Years After US De-recognition

11 April 2019 Editor

At new year 1978/79 the United States diplomatically de-recognised the Republic of China on Taiwan and recognised the government of the People’s Republic of China in Beijing. Forty years on from this momentous foreign policy pivot, the city of Nottingham in the UK is hosting an international conference to assess the impact of the decision in Taiwan, China and world affairs.

Kinmenese in change: language shift, language identity and language ideologies

10 April 2019 Editor

Written by Tsung-Lun Alan Wan. In Kinmen’s case, we see how geopolitical process can also be a sociolinguistic process, where Kinmenese people deal with the identity crisis of demilitarization through cultural imaginations about Kinmen-Taiwan differences.

How Taiwan Became “Unsafe”: The forgotten moment of crisis during Taiwan’s democratisation

9 April 2019 Editor

Written by Sam Robbins. The tragic cases of Liu, Peng, and Bai happened at a critical intersection in Taiwan’s transition from authoritarianism.

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