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China’s relation to Taiwan has been in constant contention
since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in
October 1949 and the creation of the defeated Kuomintang (KMT)
exile regime on the island two months later. The island’s
autonomous sovereignty has continually been challenged, initially
because of the KMT’s insistence that it continue to represent
not just Taiwan but all of China—and later because Taiwan
refused to cede sovereignty to the then-dominant power that had
arisen on the other side of the Taiwan Strait. One thing that makes
Taiwan so politically difficult and yet so intellectually
fascinating is that it is not merely a security problem,
but a ganglion of interrelated puzzles. The optimistic hope of the
Ma Ying-jeou administration for a new era of peace and cooperation
foundered on a landslide victory by the Democratic Progressive
Party, which has made clear its intent to distance Taiwan from
China’s political embrace. The Taiwanese are now waiting with
bated breath as the relationship tautens. Why did détente
fail, and what chance does Taiwan have without it? Contributors to
this volume focus on three aspects of the evolving quandary:
nationalistic identity, social economy, and political strategy.