Boulder; London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2019. viii, 247 pp. (Tables, graphs, figures.) US$85.00, cloth. ISBN 978-1-6263-7834-6.
This book is timely to the extent that Taiwan has emerged at the centre of world attention because of its remarkable success in tackling COVID-19, and because the actions of China have reminded the world that this country remains a key node of geopolitical tensions. However, readers seeking to understand the developments in Taiwan over the last two years, since President Tsai suffered a setback with the massive loss endured by the party she leads, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), during the mid-term local elections of 2018, will have to connect the dots in the narratives offered by the contributors to this edited volume.
This 2018 electoral event looms large in this volume, and in all fairness to the authors, no one could have anticipated that just a few months after the book’s publication, the world would have to deal with the outbreak of COVID. Recent events in Hong Kong also led to a major reversal of fortune for Tsai and the DPP, with her unequivocal reelection as president in 2020 and the DPP securing a decisive majority of seats in the legislature. Such remarkable results invalidate some of the pessimistic appraisals of the DPP and its leader presented in some of the book’s chapters. This book, however, does much more than chronicle political events; it provides very relevant information about the international, economic, and social contexts of Taiwanese politics that remain relevant.
Despite the wide range of political views held by the Taiwan-watchers brought together in this volume, the editors offer in their summary a rather upbeat assessment wherein they acknowledge that Taiwan has flourished because it has successfully achieved economic, political, and social transitions (1). This sequencing goes against the grain of most theories of democratic transition, which claim that economic growth, and the social change it entails, represent the pre-conditions for democratic transition, not its consequences. Many of the contributions to this volume do not follow this script, and this yields some very interesting insights, some of which are counter-intuitive but quite enlightening. Hence, Shelley Rigger, who provides the background to the transition from authoritarianism to democracy, argues that Taiwan’s transition has been slow by global standards (26). This statement opens the door to many important questions: perhaps this gradualist approach can best explain why the democratic transition has turned into a robust consolidation? This matters for many other countries undergoing their own political transitions. The following chapter, by Chien-Pin Li, which presents Taiwan’s economic transition, casts doubt on the ability of Taiwan to innovate because of power struggles and the country’s international context (45). This chapter suffers the most from the unexpected turn of events driven by the COVID-19 pandemic: if anything, Taiwan has demonstrated over the last two years a remarkable agility to ensure that the country can withstand major external shocks. Although the international context remains threatening, the Tsai administration has thus far adroitly dampened domestic conflicts.
The third chapter on the context of Taiwan, by Dennis V. Hickey, focuses on the relationship between Taiwan and the United States, one of the most important facets of Taiwan’s international context. Hickey concludes perceptively that although the Trump presidency has been “unconventional,” it has maintained continuity with the policies of previous administrations (61). The next six chapters focus on the Tsai administration. Kharis Templeman looks at the reform agenda of the Tsai administration to underline how the gradualism of the democratic transition does not bode well for the future in the absence of consensus about reform (70). The chapter on social issues by Ching-Hsing Wang and Dennis Lu-Chung Weng proves especially informative, and although the authors could not have anticipated the reversal of fortunes in the 2020 election, their account of the social policies that any government needs to address will remain relevant for the near future (115). The chapter by T. Y. Wang and Su-Feng Cheng presents some statements about the homogeneity of the Taiwanese population that may surprise readers familiar with the political context of Taiwan, but their finding that the fifth generation of voters—those born after 1985—express the strongest support for independence, deserves serious consideration (130). In their assessment of Tsai’s New Southbound Policy, Karl Ho, Cal Clark, and Alexander Tan write approvingly about the wisdom of this policy as it diminishes dependency on China for trade and for Taiwan’s supply chain (146). Moreover, the authors see in that orientation towards Southeast Asia an opportunity to strengthen Taiwan’s soft power (147).
Although this reviewer largely agrees with this perception, the question of labor migration from Southeast Asia could have received greater attention, especially considering its ramifications for the welfare of the rapidly ageing Taiwanese population, a major social issue that transcends KMT and DPP administrations. The chapter by Wei-Chin Lee on the dynamics of cross-strait relations has fared the worst from the recent turn of events: it presents the DDP as “teetering on the precipice of independence” (166) and casts blame on the DPP for the tensions in cross-strait relations. The pragmatic attitude of Tsai and the bellicosity of Xi invalidates this statement, and this was already the case at the time of writing. Jacques deLisle’s chapter on international law and institutions, on the contrary, presents a tour de force with its analytical framework that remains valid to this day. DeLisle notes that the Tsai administration has been constant in its multipronged approach, which seeks access to international organizations, to reinforce informal links with great powers, and to adapt international regulations to its domestic institutions (171). The achievements of Taiwan during the COVID-19 pandemic have vindicated this approach, which deLisle’s analysis has perceptively identified. This reviewer stands in agreement with the editors’ conclusions that Taiwan’s social regime represents the last stage of its remarkable transition (217). Despite the dramatic political changes, most of the chapters remain relevant, although an update for a second edition of the book would be most welcome, should the publisher consider this option.
André Laliberté
University of Ottawa, Ottawa