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Wh

o, When and Why is

Taiwan?

Martin Boylemb505@kent.ac.uk

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Outline

What, where, who, whenand why are Taiwan?

Reality Puzzles

Research question

Theoretical Framework

Methodology

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Two Chinas?

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Renegade Province orSovereign State?

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A Hegemonic Struggle?

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One pipe dream

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replaced by another?

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What, When and Whereis Taiwan?

the Republic of China has been a sovereign state since it was founded in 1912.

Moreover, in 1991, amendments to the Constitution designated cross-strait relations as a specialstate-to-state relationship. Consequently, there is no need to declare independence.

(Lee Teng-hui, ROC President, 1999)

Taiwan has always been a sovereign state. In short, Taiwan and China standing onopposite sides of the Strait, there is one country on each side.

(Chen Shui-bian. ROC President 2002)

There is only one China in the world and Taiwan has been a part of China's territorysince antiquity. This is a reality widely recognized by the international community.

(Wang Guangya, PRC Ambassador to the UN, 2007)

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What, Where and Whenis Taiwan?

The Republic of China is our nation, and Taiwan is our home

(Ma Ying-jeou, ROC President, 2011)

"The ROC government we have today is no longer a government that has come in from theoutside. It's the government of the Taiwan of today."

(Tsai Ing-wen, DPP presidential candidate, 2011)

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What, When and Whereis Taiwan?

"Taiwan is no bigger than a ball of mud. We gain nothing by possessing it, and itwould be no loss if we did not acquire ithanging alone beyond the seas [and] far off on theedge of the oceans.

Qing Emperor (1683)

we will extend them (the Koreans) our enthusiastic help in their struggle forindependence. The same thing applies for Taiwan"

Mao Zedong (1936)

"No matter who comes into power in Taiwan, Taiwan will never be allowed to beindependent. This is our bottom line and the will of 1.25 billion Chinese people. The Chinese

people are ready to shed blood and sacrifice their lives to defend the sovereignty andterritorial inte rit of the motherland."

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Who is Taiwan?

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Who is Taiwan?

Sino-centric narratives remain valid because migrants from the Chinese Mainland were thefirst to develop an island-wide consciousness that transcended and incorporated localidentities.

Dawley (2009)

The sinicisation of Taiwan was a function of Sino-European co-colonisation throughout Eastand South East Asia in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Andrade (2005)

A distinctive Taiwanese identity simply did not exist before 1895.Dawley (2009)

Taiwanese national consciousness emerged and was reconstructed under the Japanese and ChineseNationalist rule between 1920 and 1955.

Tzeng (2009)

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Who is Taiwan?

It doesnt matter whether you came 400 or 500 years ago or 40 or 50 years ago from the mainland,or if you are an aboriginal, we are all Taiwanese. So as long as we all work hard for Taiwan and theROC, then we are New Taiwanese

(Lee Teng-hui, 1998) Who loves Taiwan more than I?

(Lien Chan, 1998)

Lee Teng-hui: Ma Ying-jeou. Where do you come from?

Ma Ying-jeou: I am a New Taiwanese who grew up drinking Taiwan water and eating Taiwan rice,

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Who is Taiwan?

I am a Taiwanese

(Tsai Ing-wen, DPP presidential candidate, 2011)

I am a descendant of the Yellow Emperor in blood and I identify with Taiwan in terms of myidentity. I fight for Taiwan and I am Taiwanese. In nationality, I am an ROC citizen and I am thepresident of the ROC.

(Ma Ying-jeou, KMT presidential candidate, 2011)

I am Yok Mu-ming and I am Chinese,

(Yok Mu-ming, New Party presidential candidate, 2011)

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Why is Taiwan?

?

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The Reality

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The Chinese side reaffirmed its position: []theGovernment of the Peoples Republic of China is thesole legal government of China; Taiwan is a provinceof China []The Chinese Government firmly opposes anyactivities which aim at the creation of "one China, oneTaiwan" "one China two governments", "two Chinas", an"independent Taiwan" or advocate that "the status ofTaiwan remains to be determined".

The U.S. side declared:The United Statesacknowledges that all Chinese on either side of theTaiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and thatTaiwan is a part of China. The United States Governmentdoes not challenge that position. It reaffirms its interest in a

peaceful settlement of the Taiwan question by the Chinesethemselves.

The Reality

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The Reality

Has anyone asked the Taiwanese?Milton Viorst, The Washington Post, March 11, 1972

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A Puzzle

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A Puzzle

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A Puzzle

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A Puzzle

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Three Puzzles

Taiwanese political identityincreasing, despite materialrealities.

Security dilemma persists, despiteincreased economic, social andcultural integration.

Increased Taiwanese national identity

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Research Question

Despite the rapid expansion of cross-Straiteconomic and social ties and the material realityof the islands political and legal status, whydoes the electorate in Taiwan consistently rejectunification with China when this might remove

the security dilemma?

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Hypotheses

ROC/Taiwan state identityreconstruction.

Taiwanese national identityreconstruction.

ROC elite construction v. PRC eliteconstruction.

Evidence for PRC elite construction ofTaiwan through cross-Strait dialogue.

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Further ResearchQuestions

Have policy elites in mainland China re-constructed Taiwan and the Taiwanese? If so,why?

Do PRC elites acknowledge that there is a Taiwanese political and national identity that isseparate to a Chinese one and is this picked up on by Taiwanese elites and transmitted to

the Taiwanese electorate?

Do PRC elites, in attempting to create a Chinese identity for Taiwan, inadvertently createa separate Taiwanese-ness? If so, how can evidence for this be located?

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Theoretical Framework

Constructivism NeoclassicalRealism

Power National Identity

Anarchy

through state

interaction. Social,

normative,

ideational

phenomena

influenceagency.

Human agency

affects foreign

policy. Norms and

discourses

define interests. Co-constituted

and

intersubjective

identities.

States prone to

conflict. Elite

perceptions

inform policy

decisions. Anarchic world

order of relativepower

distribution. Aggression

comes from

domestic

politics not the

international

system. Perceptions of

relative power,

prestige and

state structures. Tribalism and

group identity

make nation-

state dominant

actor.

Relative, social,

relational,

interactional

and contingent

power. Elite agency

affects relative

powerdistribution.

Interactive v

constitutive

power. Compulsory,

institutional,

structural and

productive

power.

Modernist

paradigm. Imagined

communities. Discursively

constructed. Local elites.

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Theoretical Framework

Constructivism

Identities are the basis of interests. Actors do not have a portfolio

of interests that they carry around independent of social context;instead, they define their interests in the process of definingsituations. (Wendt, 1992: 398)

The identity of a state (national identity), more than any-thing else, provides a cognitive framework for shaping its interests,worldview, and consequent foreign policy actions. An understand-ing of this identity will therefore contribute to more accurate accountsof state behaviors. (Kim, 2003)

State interests do not exist to be discovered by self-inter-

ested, rational actors[but are]constructed through a processof social interaction. (Katzenstein, 1996)

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Theoretical Framework

Neoclassical Realism

a countrys foreign policy is drivenby the countrys relative

material power. Yet, systemic pressures [are filtered through]decision-makers perceptions and state structure.

(Rose, 1998)

[Tribalism] as the analytical link between individual identity andcollectives and makes a link with constructivism regarding collectiveidentity formation.

(Sterling-Folker, 2006: 42).

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Theoretical Framework

Power

A has power over B to the extent that he can get B to do something

that B would not otherwise do

(Dahl, 1957, 20203)

Power may comprise anything that establishes and maintains

the control of man over manits content and manner of its useare determined by the political and cultural environment.

(Morgenthau, 1978: 9)

the production, in and through social relations, of effects that shape the

capacities of actors to determine their own circumstances and fate.

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Theoretical Framework

National Identity

Modernism Invented traditions [are] part of a process of formalisation andritualisation, characterised by reference to the past. (Hobsbawm and Ranger,1999)

Imagined CommunitiesOfficial historical narrations reconstruct national consciousness through

remembering or forgetting. (Anderson, 1991: 46)

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Methodology

Literature review

Discourse Analysis

Applied linguistics approach

Elite interviews