Taiwan's Expanding Role in the International Arena (review)

Reviews 595 Maysing H. Yang, editor. Taiwan's ExpandingRole in the International Arena. Taiwan in the Modern World Series. Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1997. xxvii, 216 pp. Hardcover $52.95, isbn 1-56324-968-5. Paperback $24.95, isbn 1-56324-992-8. Taiwan's Expanding Role in the InternationalArena records the proceedings ofan international conference bearing the same tide held in Taipei, August 20-21, 1993. Sponsored by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the primary opposition party to the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) on Taiwan, the conference sought to focus international attention on the foreign policy aspirations of the DPP. As made clear in the book, the DPP seeks wider international recognition ofTaiwan as a sovereign, independent state, separate from China. The book highlights Taiwan's potential expanded role in international affairs, including its participation in the United Nations, with DPP spokespersons arguing for greater recognition ofTaiwan , and most non-Taiwanese participants counseling realism and patience in view ofthe adamant opposition ofthe People's Republic of China (PRC). The book is organized into six parts, each dealing with a different perspective : Taiwan (the DPP, actually), Asia (Japan and Australia), Germany and Korea, Canada and South Africa, the United States, and Hong Kong and China. Twelve conference papers and attendant comments comprise the chapters, along with two discussion sections. Over twenty-five scholars and experts present a wide spectrum ofviews on the future role ofTaiwan in world affairs, with papers being presented by Lung-chu Chen, Lim Lo-tsui, Hidenori Ijiri, M. D. Fletcher, Barbara Krug, Sonn Se-Il, Cornelius Jaenen, Peter Vale, Ralph Clough, Alfred Wilhelm, Michael Yahuda, and Li Lu. This collection has a number of both strengths and weaknesses. On the positive side, it contributes to a broader understanding of and appreciation for the efforts of the Taiwanese people to find a proper place in the world. There is some urgency to this issue because, as noted by Michael Kau in the foreword, "A serious discrepancy has developed in recent decades between Taiwan's economic and political developments, on the one hand, and its international status and participation , on the other" (p. ix). The book is useful in that it addresses one of the central dilemmas of Taiwan's role in international affairs: "whether the world community should take the liberal stance ofproviding moral support to the legitimate aspirations of the 21 million Taiwanese people for freedom and indepen-© 1998 by University dence or accept me realpolitikofchina's naked political pressure and threat" ofHawai'i PressiTr... (Kau, p. xii). Several ofthe chapters are informative. Ralph Clough's admonition not to force the United States to choose between Taipei and Beijing is well taken, and Al 596 China Review International: Vol. 5, No. 2, Fall 1998 Wilhelm offers a good summary ofpost-Cold War security challenges in East Asia. The paper contributed by Michael Yahuda on "Sino-British Negotiations on Hong Kong and Their Significance for Taiwan" is especially interesting. Also useful are the editorial comments ofMaysing Yang preceding each chapter, which place the discussions into a larger theoretical framework. As might be expected from such a gathering, there are numerous memorable statements made by the participating scholars. For example: As long as the government of China does not allow the people of China to elect their own government . . . , it is inconceivable that it will say that it is all right for the people ofTaiwan to have self-determination. (Frank Ching, p. 32) To put pressure on the Taiwanese people to feel some sort of Han chauvinistic, nationalistic duty and moral responsibility to help China modernize and democratize is unrealistic and unfair. (C. L. Chiou, p. 51) This is the crux of the problem ofwhy Taiwan is isolated, why Taiwan is a pariah : it is because the [Republic of China] government refuses to recognize that the government of Taiwan is the government of Taiwan, and it is still claiming to be the government of China. (Parris Chang, p. 111) What I have discovered is that Taiwan must learn to strike a balance between the imperative of maintaining national security on the one hand and fulfilling the aspiration of Taiwan's people for their country to become a...