Abstract
U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East currently dominates the headlines and is a chief topic of discussion among both scholars and policymakers. However, of equal, or even greater, importance is U.S. foreign policy toward East Asia, particularly China and Taiwan. Taiwan’s status as an internationally unrecognized state and China’s claim to ownership over Taiwan, combined with China’s threat to attack Taiwan should the latter attempt to declare independence or be recognized by others, combine to create a volatile situation. Taiwan’s recent democratization, along with China’s and Taiwan’s rapid economic growth and high volume of trade with the United States and each other, further complicate U.S. foreign policy toward these two actors.1 Factors such as the U.S. war on terror, foreign policy concerns in North Korea and Japan, as well as domestic considerations also affect U.S. foreign policy toward China and Taiwan.
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Notes
I only briefly discuss U.S. foreign and national security policy toward China and Taiwan during the Cold War. For more thorough and detailed treatments see, e.g., Richard C. Bush, At Cross Purposes: U.S.Taiwan Relations since 1942 (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2004);
Dennis Van Vranken Hickey, United States-Taiwan Security Ties: From Cold War to Beyond Containment (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1994);
Martin L. Lasater, The Taiwan Conundrum in U.S. China Policy (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2000);
Winberg Chai, “The Taiwan Factor in U.S.-China Relations: An Interpretation,” Asian Affairs: An American Review 29 (2002): 131–147.
Georgy Zinoviev, “The Taiwan Question and the History of Forming a Normative Base for American-Chinese Relations,” Far Eastern Affairs 4 (2003): 58–73.
For a more detailed discussion of the TRA and its impact on the U.S.China-Taiwan triangle, see Steven M. Goldstein and Randall Schriver, “An Uncertain Relationship: The United States, Taiwan and the Taiwan Relations Act,” China Quarterly 165 (2001): 147–172.
In terms of arms sales, for the four years of the Carter presidency U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) to Taiwan averaged approximately $364.0 million, while for the eight years of the Reagan presidency U.S. FMS to Taiwan averaged $556.0 million. Wei-Chin Lee, “US Arms Transfer Policy to Taiwan: From Carter to Clinton,” Journal of Contemporary China 9 (2000): 53–75.
See also Ibid., 57; Qingmin Zhang and Eric Hyer. “US ‘Dual Track’ Policy: Arms Sales and Technology Transfer to China Mainland and Taiwan,” Journal of Contemporary China 10 (2001): 89–105.
Lee, “U.S. Arms Transfer Policy to Taiwan,” 64; Zhang and Hyer, “U.S. ‘Dual Track’ Policy,” 99; see also Robert L. Suettinger, Beyond Tiananmen: The Politics of U.S.-China Relations, 1989–2000 (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 2003).
Andrew J. Nathan, “What’s Wrong with American Taiwan Policy,” Washington Quarterly 23 (Spring 2000): 93; see also Kurt M. Campbell and Derek J. Mitchell, “Crisis in the Taiwan Strait?” Foreign Affairs 80 (July/August 2001): 14–25.
A. Cooper Drury, “Ambiguity and US Foreign Policy on China-Taiwan Relations,” in Uk Heo and Shale A. Horowitz, eds., Conflict in Asia: Korea, China-Taiwan, and India-Pakistan (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003), 56.
For a more thorough discussion of U.S. China and Taiwan policy during the Clinton administration, see David M. Lampton, Same Bed, Different Dreams: Managing U.S.-China Relations, 1989–2000 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2001); and
Ramon H. Myers, Michael C. Oksenberg, and David Shambaugh, eds., Making China Policy: Lessons from the Bush and Clinton Administrations (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001).
Patrick Tyler, A Great Wall (New York: Public Affairs, 1999), 381; quoted in Chai, “The Taiwan Factor in U.S.-China Relations,” 136.
Ted Osius, “Legacy of the Clinton-Gore Administration’s China Policy,” Asian Affairs: An American Review 28 (Fall 2001): 125–134.
For a more thorough discussion of the Taiwan Straits crisis of 1995, see Suisheng Zhao, Across the Taiwan Strait: Mainland China, Taiwan, and the 1995–1996 Crisis (New York: Routledge, 1999).
James C. Hsiung, “The U.S. ‘All-Out Engagement’ China Policy and Its Implications for Beijing and Taipei,” Asian Affairs: An American Review 26 (Spring 1999): 30.
Chai, “The Taiwan Factor in U.S.-China Relations,” 137; Goldstein and Schriver, “An Uncertain Relationship,” 160; Hsiung, “The U.S. ‘All-Out Engagement’ China Policy,” 34; Nathan, “What’s Wrong with American Taiwan Policy,” 96; see also Gang Lin and Xiaobo Hu, “US-China Relations and the Taiwan Factor,” Journal of Contemporary China 8 (1999): 545–555.
James H. Hughes, “China’s Ballistic Missile Threat,” Journal of Social, Political and Economic Studies 27 (Spring 2002): 3–22.
Bruce J. Dickson, “New Presidents Adjust Old Policies: US-Taiwan Relations under Chen and Bush,” Journal of Contemporary China 11 (2002): 645–656.
Robert M. Hathaway, “The Lingering Legacy of Tiananmen: Grand Strategy and Domestic Politics,” Foreign Affairs 82 (September/ October 2003): 162.
Jiemian Yang, “Sino-US and Cross-Strait Relations under the Post-’11 September’ Strategic Settings,” Journal of Contemporary China 11 (2002): 657–672.
Charles Tien and James A. Nathan, “The Polls-Trends: American Ambivalence Toward China,” Public Opinion Quarterly 65 (Spring 2001): 131.
Edward Timperlake and William C. Triplett II, Red Dragon Rising (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 1999): 19; quoted in Chai, “The Taiwan Factor in U.S.-China Relations,” 138.
Lawrence E. Grinter, “Handling the Taiwan Issue: Bush Administration Policy toward Beijing and Taipei,” Asian Affairs: An American Review 29 (Spring 2002): 3–15.
Rear Adm. Michael A. McDevitt (Ret.), “The Quadrennial Defense Review and East Asia,” PacNet Newsletter no. 43 (October 26, 2001), http://www.csis.org/pacfor/pac0143.htm (accessed April 8, 2002). Quoted in Nancy Bernkopf Tucker, “If Taiwan Chooses Unification, Should the United States Care?” Washington Quarterly 25 (Summer 2002): 23.
Yang, “Sino-US and Cross-Strait Relations,” 665. See also Robert Sutter, “Bush Administration Policy toward Beijing and Taipei,” Journal of Contemporary China 12 (August 2003): 477–492; and
Robert Sutter, US Policy toward China (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1998).
James Dao, “Closer Ties with China may Help US on Iraq,” October 4, 2002, in Taiwan Security Research, http://www.taiwansecurity.org (accessed April 5, 2003). Quoted in
Dennis Van Vranken Hickey, “Continuity and Change: The Administration of George W. Bush and US Policy Toward Taiwan,” Journal of Contemporary China 13 (August 2004): 473.
Michael D. Swaine, “Trouble in Taiwan,” Foreign Affairs 83 (March/April 2004): 39–49.
Thomas J. Christensen, “The Contemporary Security Dilemma: Deterring a Taiwan Conflict,” Washington Quarterly 25 (Autumn 2002): 7–21.
David Shambaugh, “Facing Reality in China Policy,” Foreign Affairs 80 (January/February 2001), 50–64.
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© 2007 Shale Horowitz, Uk Heo, Alexander C. Tan
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Redd, S.B. (2007). Explaining U.S. Policy toward China and Taiwan. In: Horowitz, S., Heo, U., Tan, A.C. (eds) Identity and Change in East Asian Conflicts. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230603134_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230603134_5
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