The Politics of Strategic Interaction across the Taiwan Strait

Abstract

This chapter discusses the political and strategic interaction between the two governments across the Taiwan Strait. It tackles the question of why political tension has increased even as integration of the two economies deepens. Taipei and Beijing have both tried to manipulate cross-Strait economic relations in pursuit of their own political and strategic goals. For Beijing, growing economic interaction is a lure to woo Taiwan into an inextricably intertwined relationship. It hopes that an increasingly dense web of interdependence will defuse the “time bomb” of Taiwan independence, which could disrupt the mainland’s own process of economic reform. On the other hand, Taipei fears unification on Beijing’s terms and is striving to regulate the pace of economic interaction, reasoning that full-scale economic integration will eventually compromise Taiwan’s political autonomy. Thus, increased economic exchanges and cultural contacts have done little to ameliorate the political tensions. On the contrary, the seemingly unstoppable process of economic integration has led to intensifying political rivalry between the two sides. This chapter spells out the political context in which this complex interdependence has developed across the Taiwan Strait.