Overview

This volume focuses on Taiwanese identity and cross-Strait relations at a time when the ascent of China has proven to be the greatest sustained story of international relations in the new millennium. How the people who live in Taiwan view themselves is a function of great power competition. Taiwan, formally the Republic of China (ROC), exists in the shadow of one giant, the People's Republic of China (PRC), and is a key client state of another, the United States (US). Each of these features influences both the evolution of Taiwanese identity and the playing out of cross-Strait relations. Embedded in history with an eye on the future, this study will pay some attention to developments prior to the flight of the Kuomintang (KMT), the losing side in the Chinese Civil War, to the island of Formosa in 1949. However, most attention will be paid to events since that time and especially in recent years, which have witnessed dramatic changes in the capabilities of the PRC, Taiwanese identity, and cross-Strait relations. In such dynamics, the US stands out as the key third-party actor among those external to Northeast Asia, with potential to impact the direction and magnitude of further developments (Jentleson, 2016). In our approach we consider especially the pull between ideological and self-interested motivating factors on shaping identity. The overall objective of this volume is to assess the evolving nature of Taiwanese identity and cross-Strait relations in connection with a rapid rise of China. As such, it also possesses implications for the US-led world order and today's most critical great power competition.

This chapter continues with three further sections. The second section focuses on recent developments in cross-Strait relations. The third section reviews the rise of China in connection with evolving identity for Taiwan and the role of the US. The fourth and final section provides a plan of work for the chapters that follow.

The challenge of cross-Strait relations

When Ma Ying-jeou and Xi Jinping met in Singapore on 7 November 2015, it marked the potential beginning of a new era in cross-Strait relations. The heads of state for the ROC and PRC had not met in person since the end of the Chinese Civil War that produced a communist regime on the Mainland and nationalist flight to Taiwan – a gap of more than six decades.