Abstract
The democratisation of Taiwanese politics during the 1990s ushered in a new era of change from an authoritarian regime to a vibrant multi-party democracy that has not only shown resilience in face of an existential threat but has also delivered unprecedented economic development for its people. Since then, Taiwan’s democracy has only matured as evidenced by the sweeping victory of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in 2016 and successively in the 2020 elections, both presidential and in Legislative Yuan. A significant change after the eight years of KMT rule under Ma Ying-jeou, the new DPP administration led by Tsai Ing-wen faces several opportunities as well as obstacles as Taiwan finds itself at the centre of global geopolitics while the global hegemon and its most suitable challenger are increasingly getting caught in a Thucydides trap.
Taiwan in the Era of Tsai Ing-wen: Changes and Challenges is another valuable addition to Routledge’s Research on Taiwan Series, almost as a sequel to the Political Change in Taiwan under Ma Ying-jeou (2016, edited by Jean-Pierre Cabestan and Jacques deLisle) which focused on President Ma and his administration just like this one does for President Tsai and her administration. Contributions from an international group of leading scholars and analysts in the form of 11 chapters provide diverse perspectives on a wide range of subjects. The chapters are divided into different themes such as domestic politics, economy, external relations, defence and cultural aspects. The book focuses on the defining developments of Tsai’s historic first campaign and fundamental policy agenda articulated early in her first term or traces in more detail developments—much more significant for some topics than others—occurring across Tsai’s first term and into her second.
The opening chapter by the two editors, June Teufel Dreyer and Jacques deLisle, provides an excellent outline of the book by setting the context and explaining why the Tsai administration needs to be carefully watched. In the next two chapters, Richard C. Bush and Shelley Rigger address whether recent electoral outcomes, particularly at the national level, reflect more the DPP’s strengths or the KMT’s failures (pp. 2–5). Taiwan’s polarised zero-sum politics cautions Rigger, has the potential to turn the tables in favour of either of the two parties and hence, one needs to be prudent while counting the KMT out. Economic issues loomed large in both the elections as well as in the 2018 city and county elections which was a setback for the DPP. In the 2016 campaign and during the four-year term that followed, Tsai and the DPP moved to address economic policy issues with initiatives that included pension reform, education reform, improving the social safety net, industrial policy focusing on several technology-intensive sectors, reforms to the financial sector and foreign trade and investment policy, including rebalancing to reduce dependence on China (p. 5). Peter Chow, professor of economics at the City University of New York and the Executive Director of the American Association for Chinese Studies, points out that improvements in Taiwan’s international economic relations are possible but limited and difficult to achieve given the serious economic fallout from COVID-19 and the increasing Chinese ability to constrain and impede Taiwan’s diplomatic and economic engagements in the global arena. Chow’s detailed analysis of Taiwan’s international economic engagement under the Tsai administration portrays an optimistic picture that is likely to continue unless a black swan event occurs.
York W. Chen in his chapter, Constructive build-up of Taiwan’s defense, assesses three principal aspects of Taiwan’s national defence policy using a metaphor of constructing a building—‘foundation’ in social and governmental support for armed forces, ‘configuring the floors’ which is about Taiwan’s defence strategy and its operational concepts, and the ‘reinforced concrete’ of building up Taiwan’s indigenous defence industry (p. 108). He credits the Tsai government for the doctrine of ‘Resolute defense, Multi-domain Deterrence’ (p. 119) that refocuses Taiwan’s strategy on newly emerging threats from China such as psychological warfare and cyber conflict. On cross-Strait relations, Tsai has staked out a position that is accommodating by recent DPP standards but that takes a step back from Ma’s policies of more rapid rapprochement. The next three chapters provide an in-depth analysis of Taiwan’s relationship with Beijing, Washington and Tokyo illustrating the trajectory that these entangled relationships have taken in recent years. Vincent Wang and Jacques deLisle’s account of the ‘Three Moves’ theory is worth noticing (p. 163).
The book ends with an extremely important theme in the chapter, ‘Taiwan’s Culture Wars from “Re-China-ization” to “Taiwan-ization” and Beyond’, authored by Fang Long Shih, which deals with Taiwan’s long-standing identity crisis. For Shih, Tsai’s approach is especially distinctive, moving beyond the traditional dichotomy of Chinese versus Taiwanese, to frame Taiwan as a ‘pluricultural settler state’ with overlays of indigenous (yuanzhumin), local Taiwanese, Chinese and various foreign cultural influences (p. 297). The contributing authors to this volume seem to suggest that there is potential for significant changes in Taiwan’s policies on many issues under the Tsai administration but that requires bold initiatives and solid political will, especially when it comes to Taiwan’s foreign policy.
Without a doubt, this volume is another jewel in Routledge’s collections on Taiwan, but it is not recommended for beginners. Scholars of Taiwanese studies would benefit a lot even though some issues such as nationalism and corruption are missing from this edition. A bit of focus on Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy would also have been a good add-on. Nonetheless, the editors and the contributing authors must be complimented for the immense effort that has been put into bringing up this fine piece of work. Taiwan, under the leadership of Tsai Ing-wen, has much on its plate, both opportunities as well as challenges, that need to be dealt with utmost prudence and a clear-eyed vision of peace and prosperity in the Taiwan Strait.