This book examines how Asian countries have responded to urgent challenges against a backdrop of climactic political developments, as well as the effects of issue linkage in policy making. Chapters are arranged according to localities but interlinked through their thematic and critical analyses. The section on Hong Kong focuses on the theme of protests, highlighting its intersection with identity and generational shifts in addition to legal, political and economic changes before and after the adoption of Hong Kong National Security Law. The section examining Taiwan’s policies discusses electoral calculations, identity reconstruction, cross-Strait stalemate and alliance maneuvers within USA-China-Taiwan triangular international relations, providing an overview of its domestic and external policies. Through their analysis, the authors here determine that China has emphasized the prerogatives of history, culture and territorial sovereignty in its dealings with the Hong Kong protests and Taiwan, and that cross-Strait analysis must be deliberated and ultimately determined within the USA-China-Taiwan triangular framework. In the final section, authors examine the USA’s role and policy in dealing with both sides of the Taiwan Strait. Hegemonic power transition has been a primary concern in both countries with the USA’s hegemonic status facing daunting challenges from China, increasingly perceived as an ascending revisionist power waiting to overtake the USA in the future.
Author(s): Wei-chin Lee
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 445
City: London
Acknowledgments
Contents
Notes on Contributors
List of Figures
List of Tables
1 An Introduction: Protests, Pandemic, and Security Predicaments in Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, and the US
Hong Kong: Waves of Protests for Democracy and Rights
Taiwan: Riding the Anti-China Tide
China: Coping with the Turbulent Currents of Challenges
United States: Breaking the Grip of the Rip for Hegemonic Status
Thematic Implications
Notes
Bibliography
Part I Hong Kong: Waves of Protests for Democracy and Rights
2 Contesting Identities: Hong Kong’s Protests, Taiwan’s Concerns, and China’s Challenges
Storm Gathering in Hong Kong
Hong Kong: The Beat of the Storm in 2019–2020
Taiwan: Surfing on the Storm Wave
China: Weathered the Storm
Conclusions
Notes
Bibliography
3 Authoritarian Crackdown Without Bloodshed: China’s Securitization in Post-NSL Hong Kong
Introduction
Establishing a National Security Regime in Hong Kong: Why and How?
A “Circumcised” Independent Judiciary
Eradicating Civic Space and Political Opposition
Academic Freedom and Student Activism at Risks
Indoctrinating National Security in Local Schools
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Part II Taiwan: Riding the Anti-China Tide
4 Threat Perception and Taiwan’s 2020 Presidential Election
Threats and Political Behavior
Threats and the 2020 Presidential Election
Explaining the 2020 Presidential Election
Conclusions
Notes
References
5 Taiwan Can Help: The Political Impacts and Lessons of Taiwan’s Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic
Introduction
Theoretical Framework
Methods and Case Selection
A Case Study
Lessons Learned
Appendix: The Data Used for Process-Tracing Methods
A. Historical Archives
B. Newspapers
C. Statistics
Notes
Bibliography
6 Taiwan Amid the US–China Rivalry: From the Perspective of a Two-Level Game
US–China–Taiwan Relations: An Overview
Friends or Foes: A Typology of Taiwanese Voters
Types of Voters and Their Partisanships
US–China–Taiwan Relations: A Two-Level Game
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Part III China: Coping with the Turbulent Currents of Challenges
7 The Pandemic Further Sickens US-China Relations
Deterioration of the Atmospherics
Increased American Ill-Will Toward China
China Hits Back Aggressively
The Rise of Wolf Warriorism
The Wuhan Laboratory Theory
Taiwan and the Pandemic
The Pandemic’s Impact on Chinese Domestic Politics
Unvarnished Rivalry
Notes
Bibliography
8 China’s Policy Toward Taiwan in the Xi Era
Introduction
Change in the Decision-Making of Taiwan Policy: From “Local Pilot Initiative” to “Top-Level Design”
“Top-Level Design” Provides Guidance to Taiwan Policy
Implications of Enhanced Functional Department Authority
Change in Dealing with Taiwan Society: From “Exchange and Yield Benefits” to “Integrated Development”
Favor-Granting Policy Silently Abandoned
Full-Speed Implementation of “Integrated Development”
Change in the International Context: Cross-Strait Relations Have Gone from Stable to Uncertain
United States’ New Position in Cross-Strait Relations
China is Heading toward “Strategic Ambiguity”
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
9 A Pyrrhic Victory? The Political Economy of US-China Competition from Trump to Biden
Introduction
Moving toward Competition
The Xi Era
The Trade War
The Tech War
The Huawei Case
Impact on Hong Kong
The Indo-Pacific Strategy
A Pyrrhic Victory?
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
10 Will Taiwan Become the Next Ukraine? Xi Jinping’s Preparation for Armed Reunification
Xi Jinping’s Sense of Empowerment
The “Public Opinions” for Armed Unification
The Selective Engagement with Tsai Ing-Wen
Putin’s Ukraine Invasion and Xi’s Military Preparation
Minimization of Economic Vulnerability
The US Factor in the Taiwan Contingency
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Part IV The US: Breaking the Grip of the Rip for Hegemonic Status
11 Competitions and Coalitions: An Emerging US Domestic Nationalist Consensus, Executive Branch Prerogatives, and the Taiwan Strait Tensions
Introduction
Pelosi’s Visit to Taipei in August 2022
US Nationalism and the Taiwan Strait49
Ideas and Coalitions of Fortress America
Furies at Globalization and Liberal Trade with China
Ineffective Engagement
Congressional Actions
Adding the Six Assurances to the One-China Matrix122
Revisiting State-Centered Realism: Executive Dominance Over Foreign Policy
Notes
Bibliography
12 America Counters China: Congress, Resolve, and Constraints
Trump Administration Developments
2021: Biden Administration Developments
Washington’s Dire View of China’s Challenges
2022: Countering China: US Strategies, Implementation, and Gaps
Impact of Russia’s War with Ukraine
Biden Administration Strategies
Supporting Administration and Congressional Actions
Impediments, Gaps, Shortcomings in American Competition with China
Notes
Bibliography
Index
