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This paper expands upon a hitherto underexplored finding by Rich and Banerjee's 2015 model which finds that Taiwan has done comparatively better with non-democracies in Africa. The paper proposes that democratisation makes an African state more responsive to domestic economic imperatives and thus more likely to form relations with the demographically and economically larger People's Republic of China because of the prospective trade, aid and investment gains to be made once such a switch is affected. Seven case studies conducted over the 2001–2018 period yield results which are in line with this hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigating how the PRC responds to democratization in Taiwan and Hong Kong, this paper argues that the Chinese Communist leadership has mainly developed three strategies in managing the complicated crises, including Beijing's own legitimacy crisis and the integration crisis of the Chinese nation, caused by the rise of offshore Chinese democracies. These strategies are: identity politics, sovereignty politics, and economic penetration. With 'identity politics', Beijing identifies 'identification with the Communist leadership' as the sole Chinese national identification, and utilizes the nationalistic passions of mainland and even overseas Chinese people against democrats in Taiwan and Hong Kong, by labeling the latter as 'separatists' or 'national traitors'. Further, Beijing defines 'sovereignty' in a way in which the 'central' government monopolizes all possessions of the nation, and excludes 'people's sovereignty' from the politics of national reunification or the 'one country, two systems' model actualization. While appealing to both 'soft power' based in 'patriotic nationalism' and 'hard power' embedded in national sovereignty, however, the Chinese regime also mobilizes business resources and opportunities provided by China's growing economic power and China's dominance in Greater Chian economic integration for its political purposes of curbing offshore Chinese democracies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether China will become democratic is an interesting question with significant practical implications. This paper draws on the experiences of other Confucian societies (mainly Taiwan and South Korea) to show that it will be very difficult for China to become democratic anytime soon. Basically, in a Confucian society, people live in collectivities with stringent hierarchical structures. Such a feature is not conducive to democratization. In the cases of Taiwan an South Korea, cultural change, the emergence of a pluralistic social order following economic development, and foreign influence may have all contributed to their transition to democracy; however, more important is the quasi-pluralistic social order -- namely, ethnic and national identity cleavages in Taiwan and regionalism in South Korea in clearing the hurdle placed by the Confucian culture, Unfortunately, in China, no ready-made quasi-pluralistic social order exists, and other factors conductive to democratization may not be forthcoming soon, rendering the prospect of democratic transition in the foreseeable future quite bleak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a historical overview and theoretical interpretation of the issue of national identity in Taiwan. The author demonstrates how the idea of "orthodoxy" in the dynastic tradition has shaped various projects of Chinese nationalism in the twentieth century. Taiwan has surpassed this dynastic mind-set by transforming cultural nationalism into civic nationalism. Taiwan's new political order, which is centered on popular elections of the president, is interpreted as the institutionalization of plebiscites which has forged a new national identity. Theoretical reflection on the relationship between the civic nationalism of Taiwan and tile cultural nationalism of China is also provided. The author contends that a mode of heterocentric self-understanding is needed to resolve the ideological conflict between China and Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses national identity in Taiwan as of September 2012, focusing on an analysis of the nation's identity politics and democratization process which reportedly began in 1987. The institution of general political elections in Taiwan is addressed, along with an examination of the cross-Strait relations between mainland China and Taiwan. The cultural origins of China are assessed, as well as the evolution of socio-political developments in both Taiwan and China. Former Chinese President Lee Teng-hui is also mentioned.

The article reports that China may be influenced by Taiwan's democracy. Taiwan's democratic transition illustrates a possible exit strategy that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could follow if it seeks to move away from one-party authoritarianism. Taiwanese political commentators, political comedians, and talkshow hosts have become household names in China. Some of Taiwan's best-known social critics have blogs that attract large numbers of Internet users from mainland China.Taiwan's mass media have been instrumental in spreading news about Taiwan's democratic experience, many Taiwan-based social actors have contributed to China's political liberalization with information, ideas, and practical knowledge.

In this article the authors discuss the issue of democratization as it applies to Hong Kong. It is the contention of the author that the transfer of power over Hong Kong to the Chinese state has not decreased democratic government in the region and that there has been an improvement in the transparency and accountability in Hong Kong since the 1997 hand over of power. The article attempts to explain these factors and includes a discussion of the implications for China and Taiwan and the international relations between the two countries.

China's rise entails a potentially threatening increase in its political and military power. Adherents of 'democratic peace theory', however, see cause for optimism: the economic development accompanying China's ascendance might have a pacifying effect on Chinese foreign relations. Unfortunately, in China's case this hope is probably unfounded. Some of China's most prickly foreign policies, including its unwillingness to accept postwar Japan as a 'normal' nation and its insistence that Taiwan must eventually unify with China regardless of the wishes of Taiwan's inhabitants, are already 'democratic' in the sense that most of China's people endorse them. Chinese public opinion has become a powerful influence on foreign-policymaking, and one that sometimes pushes Beijing toward conflict even when China's leaders would prefer conciliation. Democratisation in China would not immediately remove the sources of tension between the Chinese and the other Asia-Pacific democracies, and China's neighbours must understand that on some issues the Chinese government must meet compelling domestic expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can states that mistrust each other as much as the Peoples' Republic of China (PRC) and Taiwan reach unification agreements? Unification agreements are most feasible when one of two conditions holds: the unification bargain does not independently erode the bargaining power of the weaker state, or the more powerful state can commit credibly not to use its increased bargaining power to restructure the agreement ex post. Our argument accounts for two historical cases - the nineteenth century Argentine and German unifications - and helps to explain why the PRC has found it difficult to make progress on achieving a peaceful bargain with Taiwan. We describe several possible future scenarios for cross-Strait relations and show that democratization in the PRC is not a necessary prerequisite for a unification agreement between the mainland and Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Never before in history have China and Japan been great powers at the same time. Today they must figure out how to live together as equals. The promise of mutual prosperity ties them together; the remembrance of bad things past pushes them apart. If that wary dance were not complicated enough, a nuclear provocateur from neighboring North Korea intrudes. A legendary figure of Japan's post-war miracle, Tsuneo Watanabe, weighs in on these big questions. Hans Blix, a former UN arms inspector and the former South Korean prime minister and Nobel laureate, Kim Dae Jung, address the North Korean conundrum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]