Reaching Across the Taiwan Strait: People-to-People Diplomacy (review)

176 SAIS Review WINTER-SPRING 1994 Reaching Across the Taiwan Strait: People-to-People Diplomacy.By Ralph N. Clough. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1993. 206 pp. $49.95/ Hardcover. Reviewed by James Green. Mr. Green holds a BA from Brown University and is an MA candüiate at SAIS. Since 1987 the Republic ofChina on Taiwan (ROC) has allowed its citizens to go to the once-forbidden Peoples' Republic ofChina (PRC) on the mainland. Ralph Clough, a professorial lecturer at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, chronicles this major shift in the two-Chinas relationship in his new book, Reaching Across the Taiwan Strait: People to People Diplomacy. Although Beijing and Taipei continue their mutual non-recognition, the easing of travel from Taiwan has decreased tensions across the Strait. Owing to dieir lack of diplomatic relations, both countries have seen a mushrooming of unofficial mainland-Taiwan contacts. Clough terms this latter phenomenon the second track of a two-track diplomacy, in which the first track consists of official, diplomatic ties. The current stand-offbetween mainland China andTaiwan is not new, and should be appreciated in the context ofChinese-Taiwanese history. In 1661 an opponent ofthe newly ruling Qing dynasty, Koxinga (Cheng Ch'enkung ), escaped to Taiwan in order to build his army in preparation for an eventual return to the mainland to depose the dynasty in Peking. A split in die government on Taiwan two decades later afforded the Qing a chance to invade die island and finally, in 1683, defeat their enemy. After gaining control, the dynasty was mosdy indifferent to Taiwan, making it a province only in 1885. Ten years later at the conclusion ofthe Sino-Japanese War, the Treaty of Shimonoseki gave die island to the victorious Japanese. They mied until the end of the Second World War. After the Chinese Nationalists, the KuoMinTang (KMT) led by Chiang Kaishek , lost the Chinese Civil War to the Communists following World War II, and they, like Koxinga's army, fled to Taiwan to regroup. The "new dynasty" of the People's Republic of China on the Chinese mainland gleefully hoped for political control ofTaiwan, as the Qing did: die Republic of China on Taiwan remains evervigilant ofa possible mainland invasion. For manyyears the international community recognized Chiang Kai-Shek's regime in Taipei as die legitimate rulers ofall ofChina. Acknowledgment of Beijing's claim to be China's true government was bolstered by U.S. President Nixon's visit in 1972 and formalized through the extension of U.S. diplomatic relations in 1979. The government in Taipei was thus left with only informal ties to the international community, with both the mainland claiming sovereignty over Taiwan, and the ROC claiming to be the government ofall ofChina. There have been no official high-level government talks between the two Chinas since liberation in 1949. When the Nationalists fled to Taiwan, they and their two million followers dominated the island politically, militarily, and economically. The KMT instituted martial law, kept power in the hands of their followers, and subjugated the local Taiwanese (now around 85 percent of the population) to the margins of political BOOK REVIEWS 177 activity. Martial law was finally lifted after 38 years in 1987, after demands from the populace grew. Chiang's son, then ruling the island, also lifted die ban on travel to mainland China at diat time. According to Clough, the main reasons for the lack ofofficial political dialogue tesult from the PRCs unwillingness to negotiate with die ROC on a government-togovernment basis, insisting thatonly government-provincial talks are allowed with die "renegade" island province. The odier part of the stalemate arises from Beijing's unwillingness to renounce he possibility of invasion of Taiwan to assert its claimed sovereignty. But despite such official non-communication, the 1 987 ROC allowance of travel to the PRC by its citizens, Clough argues, eased tensions across the Taiwan Straits. In this new atmosphere, bodi business relations and unofficial arrangements, the second track oftwo-track diplomacy, have blossomed. Taiwanese exports to mainland China, highly encouraged by Beijing, rose from $51 ,000 in 1978 to $4.7 billion in 1991 , accordingto Clough. Taiwanese investment in...