Trajectoires chinoises: Taiwan, Hong Kong et Pekin (Chinese Trajectoires: Taiwan, Hong Kong and Peking) (review)

How effectively has national political leadership interacted with the socio-historical forces that both unite and divide Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Beijing? One researcher who explicates the trends that underlie these forces is Françoise Mengin. A comparativist and international relations specialist, she lectures at the Institut d 'É tudes Politiques de Paris. Mengin's Trajectoires chinoises: Taiwan, Hong Kong et Pékinelucidates domestic and transnational "inter-Chinese" political developments by analyzing published Chinese, French, and English sources. Dr. Mengin has written widely on closely related topics.

"One China or several?" is the question guiding Mengin's investigation of this topic (p. 7). ¹Greater China's decolonization, Mengin explains, has been thrown along three divergent "Chinese trajectories." At the time of publication, reconvergence was partial, as it is today. Geographically, these three trajectories are centered, in turn, on an island (Taiwan), on an entrepôt (Hong Kong), and on a continental capital (Beijing). Mengin marches her readers through succinct historical summaries, beginning with "China and its Insular Borders" (pp. 7-13). Well-placed maps highlight the political geography of South China's emerging economic community (pp. 6 and 14). Utilizing quantitative data, these maps or complementary tables might also have conveyed the depth and spread of Taiwanese investment in mainland China and its two-way trade with the People ' s Republic.

"The Diversity of the Colonial Trajectories," Mengin points out, stems from the interventions of Portuguese, British, and Japanese imperialism (pp. 15-56) while the impact of France, Germany, and the United States on China in the late Qing dynasty, Republican, and Communist periods goes unmentioned.

Reacting to colonial history, the PRC leadership greeted the reversions of Hong Kong and Macau in 1997 and 1999, respectively, as penultimate steps in a unification parade yet to culminate in downtown Taibei. However, Beijing ' s efforts to isolate Taiwan have been self-defeating to the extent that they have accelerated the indigenization and nationalization of Taiwanese politics inside the then-ruling Kuomintang and in the broader domestic Taiwanese political milieu (pp. 31 and 37-39). Although Mengin's reader may infer as much, she states the point less sharply. In any event, pro-unification forces face previously unexpected challenges.

In a chapter on "The Virtual Reconstitution of Chinese National Space" (pp. 57-84), Mengin notes Mao Zedong's short-lived openness to independence for Taiwan in 1936 (pp. 59 n. 2 and 59-60). However, Mao's unelaborated comment to an American journalist may have been less definitive and more in passing than Mengin leads the reader to believe. ²Only five years later, Mao echoed Chiang Kai-shek ³in demanding that Japan's colony on Taiwan be united with China.

In a subsequent chapter, South China's "Economic Advances" (pp. 85-106) are outlined in some detail, although Mengin's usefully provocative de finition of the "South China economic community" awaits further refinement. For example, how long will the cross-Strait status quo persist beyond Jiang Zemin's tenure? Peacefully or otherwise, will the PRC incorporate Taiwan? Will Taiwan become a de facto political satellite of China? While precise predictions are hazardous, what are the trends?

Mengin's chapter "Unity or Fragmentation: A False Choice" (pp. 107-138) addresses the formation of national and transnational identities. On Taiwan since 1945, the Republic of China only acknowledged the PRC's authority over mainland China forty-six years later in 1991. Meanwhile, as unintended consequences, China's domestic politics and the PRC's cross-Strait posture since then have augmented the ongoing centrifugality of Taiwanese identity and Taiwan's separate political pathway. Intermittent suppression of political dissent in the PRC and blunt reminders of China's willingness to use military force have not made unification more attractive among Taiwanese if public opinion polls and election results are valid indicators...