US–China Rivalry and the Weakening of the KMT’s “1992 Consensus” Policy

Asian Survey ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 754-778 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dean P. Chen
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Taiwan Strait ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
Strategic Ambiguity ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Taiwan Strait

The PRC’s increasingly assertive foreign policy behaviors have triggered heightened anxiety among its regional neighbors. Washington has abided by a long-standing strategic ambiguity policy to manage the Taiwan Strait impasse. However, as the KMT’s “1992 consensus” policy places Taiwan in close union with Beijing, Taipei’s security positions sometimes go against the interests of the US and its allies in the Asia-Pacific. Pulling Taiwan away from China’s orbit is congruent with US interest in continuing that enduring policy framework and ensuring a healthy balance across the Strait.

Strategic ambiguity and the Trumpian approach to China–Taiwan relations

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hoo Tiang Boon ◽  
Hannah Elyse Sworn
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
The United States ◽  
Strategic Ambiguity ◽  
Common View ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Us ◽  
Personalized Approach ◽  
The Taiwan Strait ◽  
Realist Perspective

Abstract The notion of strategic ambiguity has long guided the United States’ engagement in cross-strait relations, requiring that Washington is intentionally unclear about whether and how it would intervene in a China-Taiwan conflict in order to preserve a balance of assurance and deterrence for both sides. This article unpacks the US approach to strategic ambiguity under Trump. Adopting a neo-classical realist perspective, it argues that domestic and individual level drivers-in particular, US populism, Congress and the foreign policy establishment, and Trump's transactional and personalized approach to foreign policy-have interacted with the shifting US-China balance of power to produce a different mode of American strategic ambiguity in the Taiwan Strait. A common view is that as a function of the growing US-China power competition, the US has largely leaned towards Taiwan in recent years. Our analysis revises this assessment by revealing a form of strategic ambiguity under Trump that, despite appearing to upset the balance of ambiguity in favour of Taiwan-paradoxically and probably unintentionally-maintains assurances and warnings for both China and Taiwan. Yet, while Trump has arguably preserved the overall balance of strategic ambiguity, he has introduced greater volatility into cross-strait relations.

scholarly journals Global online platforms, COVID-19, and culture: The global pandemic, an accelerator towards which direction?

2021 ◽  
pp. 016344372199453
Author(s):  
Antonios Vlassis
Keyword(s):  
Soft Power ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Online Platforms ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Major Development ◽  
The Us ◽  
Media Platform

The article proposes to consider the COVID-19 global pandemic as new major development for cultural industries and policies and to highlight timely and crucial trends due to the lockdown measures. Thus, it attempts to stimulate the scholarship debate regarding the consequences of the pandemic to the action of global online platforms, as well as to policy and economic aspects of cultural sectors. Taking as case study the audio-visual sector, the article explores whether the US global streaming platforms are the winning players of the lockdown measures and emphasizes the multifaceted strategies developed by US-based platforms in order to strengthen their soft power. Focusing on China and the European Union, the article also argues that the overwhelming action of US-based online platforms triggers the potential emergence of media platform regionalization in the context of COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, it highlights the regulatory challenges and how the new empirical trends are expected to shape the current audio-visual policy framework. The analysis focuses on the period between the beginning of global pandemic in Asia-Pacific in January 2020 and the progressive easing of lockdown measures in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific in July 2020.

Regional Defence

2020 ◽  
pp. 66-100
Author(s):  
Bhubhindar Singh
Keyword(s):  
Taiwan Strait ◽  
The North ◽  
The Us ◽  
Taiwan Strait Crisis ◽  
The Taiwan Strait ◽  
Nuclear Crisis

The chapter shows how the Japanese security policymaking elite utilised the North Korean Nuclear Crisis in 1993–4, the Taiwan Strait Crisis in 1996 and the Taepodong Crisis in 1999 to authorise the SDF to adopt a regional defence role within the US–Japan alliance.

A Stillness at Taiwan Strait

2019 ◽  
pp. 9-47
Author(s):  
Pang Yang Huei
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Relations ◽  
Taiwan Strait ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Taiwan Strait ◽  
Taiwan Straits

The genesis of the Taiwan Straits Crises could be traced to 1950 when President Harry S. Truman positioned the Seventh Fleet in the Taiwan Strait to prevent hostilities between the PRC and the ROC. In order to understand the origins and making of the contest over control of the Taiwan Strait, it is important to deal with the major developments in the foreign relations of the US, PRC and ROC from 1950 to April 1954. As the ROC was the most directly affected party right from the start, how the Taiwan Strait issue played out in Taiwan will also be examined.

The US Rebalance towards the Asia-Pacific: Really Realist?

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 291-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nguyen Thi Thuy Hang
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Policy Agenda ◽  
Obama Administration ◽  
Regional Institutions ◽  
The Third ◽  
Multilateral Institutions ◽  
The Us ◽  
Alliance Building ◽  
Realist Model

The Obama administration perceives the Asia-Pacific as a vital and dynamic region and thus prioritized it in its foreign policy agenda. Some scholars have suggested that the Obama administration’s rebalance towards Asia has taken a realist approach to engagement with the Asia-Pacific while others suggested that it deviated significantly from realism. This article seeks to examine more closely the question of the realist nature of the US rebalance policy towards the Asia-Pacific. It begins with a discussion of views of the Obama administration’s rebalance towards the Asia-Pacific before giving an overview of realism. Then, it seeks to establish a realist model of foreign policy and examine the Obama administration’s rebalance towards the Asia-Pacific against that model. It finds that the Obama administration has high scores on two of the indicators of realism—the emphasis on military capabilities and the emphasis on alliance-building—but has lower scores on the third and the fourth—a low regard for multilateral institutions, and a low regard for values. The Obama administration has actively engaged with regional institutions and has strongly supported the spread of democracy and human dignity all over the Asia-Pacific. Hence, the Obama administration’s rebalance towards the Asia-Pacific is a realist foreign policy with certain modifications.

From Yijiangshan to Bandung

2019 ◽  
pp. 116-153
Author(s):  
Pang Yang Huei
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
Taiwan Strait ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Taiwan Strait

On 18 January 1955, the PRC upped the ante by recovering the obscure Nationalist-controlled Yijiangshan islands as a prelude to occupying the neighboring Dachen islands. In a news conference on 16 March, Eisenhower publicly threatened the use of nuclear weapons. At the first Afro-Asian Conference held on 18-24 April 1955 in Bandung, Indonesia, PRC premier Zhou Enlai announced that China was not averse to negotiating with the US over the Taiwan Strait. Zhou’s conciliatory gesture was quickly accepted by the US over virulent protests by the ROC. This chapter explores the motivations for the actions of China, the US and Taiwan. It further explicates on the development of Sino-US relations from the eve of the Yijiangshan campaign to the Bandung Conference.

China's Foreign Policy: Responding to the US Pivot to Asia and Managing Differences with its Neighbours

2013 ◽  
Vol 05 (01) ◽  
pp. 14-31
Author(s):  
Yongnian ZHENG ◽  
Liang Fook LYE ◽  
Gang CHEN
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
External Environment ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Chinese Leadership ◽  
Pivot To Asia ◽  
The Us ◽  
China’S Foreign Policy ◽  
Territorial Claims ◽  
The Military

China devoted much effort to manage its relations with Asia-Pacific countries in 2012 due to the US pivot to the region. China views the military-centric focus of the US pivot as directed at China and as emboldening regional countries to be more assertive in their territorial claims vis-à-vis China. In 2013, the Chinese leadership will likely strike a balance between seeking a stable external environment and standing firm on issues concerning China's national interests.

Indonesia and the ASEAN outlook on the Indo-Pacific

2020 ◽  
Vol 96 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dewi Fortuna Anwar
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Law ◽  
Leadership Role ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Pacific Region ◽  
Major Powers ◽  
Middle Power ◽  
East Asia Summit ◽  
The Us ◽  
Block Approach

Abstract Indonesia has taken a leadership role within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in drafting a common outlook on the Indo-Pacific concept. The widening of Indonesia's geostrategic canvas from the Asia–Pacific to the Indo-Pacific is in line with President Joko Widodo's intent to make Indonesia a Global Maritime Fulcrum (GMF). In view of the rivalry between the US and China and the emergence of various Indo-Pacific initiatives from other countries, Indonesia believes that ASEAN must try to maintain its centrality. The draft of Indonesia's perspective for an ASEAN outlook on the Indo-Pacific: towards a peaceful, prosperous, and inclusive region was submitted for considerations by ASEAN, and after 18 months of intensive lobbying by Indonesia the concept was finally adopted at the ASEAN Summit in June 2019. The ASEAN outlook promotes the principles of openness, inclusiveness, transparency, respect for international law and ASEAN centrality in the Indo-Pacific region. It proposes a building-block approach, seeking commonalities between existing regional initiatives in which ASEAN-led mechanisms will act as a fulcrum for both norm-setting and concrete cooperation. Rather than creating a new regional architecture, the East Asia Summit (EAS) is proposed as the platform for advancing the Indo-Pacific discourse and cooperation. Indonesia's ASEAN outlook on the Indo-Pacific marks its renewed foreign policy activism as a middle power and underlines the continuing importance that Indonesia places on ASEAN as the cornerstone of its foreign policy, emphasising ASEAN's centrality as the primary vehicle for managing relations with the major powers in the Indo-Pacific region.

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