The Interagency Process Behind US Policy on Taiwan
Abstract : How the US government interacts with Taiwan on economic, political, and security issues has long been a mystery to me. The US does not maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan, which is a breakaway province of China, and the unresolved status of Taiwan is the main challenge to US relations with the People's Republic of China (PRC). This paper will endeavor to shed light on how the current interagency process on US-Taiwan relations came into being since the US, under the Nixon Administration, began normalizing relations with the People's Republic of China (PRC). It will examine the bilateral documents and US laws that are the foundation of US-Taiwan relations, focusing on the roles played by the people, organizations, and processes that formulate and implement US policy regarding Taiwan. US arms sales to Taiwan are now at an all time high, will illustrate the complexities of this interagency process.
A Tale of One China: How and Why Has the Efficacy of United States Arms Sales to Taiwan Changed Since 1990
Abstract : This study analyzes the changes in United States security assistance to Taiwan from 1990 to 2016. The author evaluates congressional notifications of major arms sales to Taiwan in terms of their impact on US-Peoples Republic of China (PRC) relations and on Taiwans defensive capabilities. These two variables correlate directly to United States China policy goals, which strive to balance positive relations with the PRC with preventing unilateral changes to the status quo across the Taiwan Strait. By analyzing seven major arms sales notifications, the study determines that both the quantity and quality of US security assistance to Taiwan have declined in recent years. The report traces these declines to decreased US leverage over the PRC on trade and technology transfers, increased PRC economic and military power, and the impact of two American security assistance policy changes. Finally, the study proposes recommendations for future security assistance to Taiwan and a more transactional approach to US-PRC relations.
The Internet and the Changing Beijing-Taipei Relations: Toward Unification or Fragmentation?
Information and its technologies facilitate the exercise of what has been called “soft power,” a concept that differentiates information from the conventional dimensions of “hard power,” which is mainly associated with military force and economic influence. Soft power, according to Nye, a former Assistant Secretary of Defense of the United States, means that “A country may obtain the outcomes it wants in world politics because other countries want to follow it, admiring its values, emulating its example, aspiring to its level of prosperity and openness. In this sense it is just as important to set the agenda in world politics and attract others as it is to force them to change through the threat or use of military or economic weapons.”1