The Narrowing Taiwan Strait And Its Political, Economic, Social and Strategic Implications

The UC Berkeley Institute of East Asian Studies (IEAS) presents a selection of scholars as they meet to reexamine the current state of China-Taiwan relations and the role of US strategies and commitments in the cross-Straits relationship.

China's "economic miracle," arms buildup, and diplomatic initiatives have all profoundly reshaped its position vis a vis Taiwan. In the wake of shifting power relations, and after more than a decade of escalating cross-Strait polarization fed by growing nationalism on either side of the Strait, there has been since the late 2000s an historic rapprochement between Taiwan and mainland China. A selection of the most outstanding scholars in the world engaged in these issues will meet to reexamine the current state of China-Taiwan relations and the role of US strategies and commitments in the complicated and often contentious cross-Straits relationship.

The Narrowing Taiwan Strait
And Its Political, Economic, Social and Strategic Implications

I. Taiwan Strait Détente and its Strategic Implications

Wu Yu-Shan, Academia Sinica:
“Pivot, Hedger, or Partner: Strategic Choice by Lesser Powers Caught between Hegemons”

Huang Jing, National University of Singapore:
“Box Taiwan in a Strategic Framework of Reunification: China’s Taiwan Policy Under Xi Jinping”

Scott Kastner, University of Maryland:
“Rethinking the prospects for conflict and peace in the Taiwan Strait”

Samuel C. Y. Ku, National Sun Yat-sen University:
“Strategies of China’s Expansion and Taiwan’s Survival in Southeast Asia: A Comparative Perspective”

II. The Political Economy of Cross-Strait Détente

Leng Tse-Kang, Academia Sinica:
“Cross-Strait economic relations in the context of China’s grand strategy”

Liou Chih-hsian, National Cheng-Chi University:
“Chinese Outward Foreign Direct Investment in Taiwan”

Tsai Chung-min, National Cheng-Chi University:
“The Transition of Taiwanese Investment in China 2000-2014”

Hsing You-tien, University of California/Berkeley:
“Community activism in Taiwan and China”

III. National Identity under Détente

Shu Keng & Emmy Lin Ruihua, School of Public Econ. & Admin., Shanghai Univ. of Finance and Economics:
“Why Taiwanese Communities Could Easily Blend in But Refuse to Be Melted in the Chinese Society?”

Chen Rou-lan, National Tung Hua University:
“Chinese Nationalism in a Pressure Pot: An Analysis of China’s Raging Youth Phenomenon”

Lin Gang, Shanghai Jiaotong University:
“Chinese National Identity in Reconstruction”

Jean-Pierre Cabestan, Hong Kong Baptist University:
“Changing Political Identities in Taiwan under Ma Ying-jeou”