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The People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC) (Taiwan) have taken divergent paths in the area of human rights. Since the two leaders Xi Jinping and Tsai Ing-wen came to power, the differences in the area of human rights have further increased. The paper analyses and compares their external human rights strategies based on realist assumptions and the soft and hard power resources of the PRC and the ROC. The PRC's objectives are to deflect international criticism of its human rights situation and to weaken the global human rights system and its underlying human rights norms. Taiwan's objective is to use its record as a human rights leader in Asia to expand its limited international space and to strengthen its ties with other consolidated democracies and the global civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes the growing human rights gap between China on one side and the US and Taiwan on the other side and analyses its impact on cross-strait relations. Since Xi Jinping's ascent to power in the People's Republic of China in 2012/2013 and the elections of Donald Trump in the US and Tsai Ing-wen in Taiwan in 2016, the relationship between China and the other two countries has worsened. The US and Taiwan have a similar view on human rights in the PRC. The increasing repression and authoritarianism of the PRC leads to a human rights gap in the Taiwan Strait that increases the divide and the tensions between both sides. The failure of the PRC to address in its proposal for a peaceful unification the concerns of the Taiwanese for their democracy and human rights pushes Taiwan further away. The similar assessment of the PRC's authoritarian threat by the US and Taiwan strengthens the bond between both, based on the shared values of democracy and human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This survey reviews the growing role and presence of China in the Island Pacific. As the late Professor Ron Crocombe remarked, in the Pacific a major transition is under way from a range of European to Asian influences. Many Western observers have viewed this rise of Asian, and specifically Chinese, influence with alarm, but Crocombe saw it as offering Pacific Islanders new opportunities. This paper first analyses the diversity that can be masked by terms such as ‘China’ and ‘the Pacific’. Then it surveys recent literature on China in the Pacific and scholarship concerned with longer Chinese histories in the region that most recent commentators ignore and which question a number of their assertions. Finally, it suggests possible future directions for historical research on this topic. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents the study which identifies and explains the strategic motives for joint venture formation in China by Taiwanese partner firms and the selection criteria adopted these firms. These concerns include the economies of scale and cost reduction in order to improve the position in the international market and for fast entry in the Chinese market. Relevant information about the research such as the task relation, partner relation and the method used in the study are also presented.

Through a case study of Taiwan, this paper seeks to address recent debates surrounding the transformation of developmental states in East Asia. Whilst a number of authors have cited the Taiwanese state as being both cautious and resilient in the midst of global restructuring, this paper seeks to critically engage with such arguments by highlighting the dynamic and mutually constitutive relations between the forms of social relations that underpin late development and the wider geopolitical system in which such development occurs. Specifically, Taiwanese industrialisation can be viewed as an outcome of the US intervention in the Chinese civil war and subsequent exclusion of China from the regional political economy in the period between the Korean and Vietnam Wars. The Kuomintang (KMT)'s retreat to Taiwan established the basis for the autonomous developmental state, and the US underpinned this state through military protection, aid and access to its own domestic market. However, the relative decline of US hegemony and the readmission of China into the international system have posed significant challenges to Taiwan's developmental state. The US sought to redress its trade imbalance with East Asia by placing pressure on Taiwan to liberalise its political economy. Furthermore, the very process of development itself served to undermine the autonomy of the state as it came under pressure from new social forces. Taiwan has more recently been faced with a dilemma of closer integration with the mainland or the maintenance of its de facto economic and political independence at the risk of becoming isolated from the global trading system. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Using the evolutionary framework of inductive screening, this paper seeks to examine the drivers of technological catch-up in the integrated circuits (ICs) industry in Taiwan and China. The paper shows that IC manufacturing began with multinationals relocating export-oriented assembly operations in the 1960s in Taiwan and in the 1980s in China, but serious technological catch-up took place when, with the assistance of the government, local firms began to participate in wafer fabrication and designing activities. While foreign ownership and export markets were critical in initiating connections in the global IC value chain, the paper argues that the role of the government through funding, research and development laboratories and development of human capital were critical in local firms' technological catch-up process in both the countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the causes and consequences of politicized economic management in the cross strait. The first half of the paper briefly reviews the cross-strait political and economic environment. The passage of the anti-secession law by Mainland China in March 2005 marked a new high in the political tension in the cross strait. From the economic standpoint, cross-strait relation has registered a more positive outlook. But this is merely on the surface. As the second half of the paper shows, politicians from both sides are still exerting much influence on how firms are to conduct their business with their counterparts. Hence, economics are highly politicized. The result is destructive. Firms face a high degree of vulnerability and uncertainty in the conduct of their business because political tension makes it difficult for them to make economic decisions independent of politics. As long as political differences remain unresolved, it would not be easy for full economic integration between Taiwan and the Mainland. Military confrontations cannot be ruled out in spite of greater economic integration when future economic outlook between the two economies remains uncertain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The central question of this paper is whether China can go beyond simple technological transfer and toward innovation in this age of globalization. By adopting an institutionalist perspective, this paper argues that China has developed a dualist model during its economic transitional period in which the foreign sector has been isolated from domestic firms, while the domestic industrial sectors have also failed to develop organic linkages among themselves to facilitate technological learning and generate innovation. This paper discusses four major institutional arrangements that deeply influence China's technological development – the institutional logic of economic reform, the state's industrial policy, the financial system and the industrial structure. It suggests that, owing to these institutional elements, China has neither developed economies of scale, as compared with the South Korean case, nor has it built up a network-type of economy similar to its Taiwanese counterpart in order to generate the mechanisms needed for technological innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper developed a Chinese model of crisis communication by using a contextual perspective capable of identifying influences at the crisis-event level (crisis type, crisis stakeholder, crisis stage, and crisis system) and the societal level (polities, economic systems, and media systems) in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. An analysis of 93 academic works published in 15 journals demonstrated the effects of economic development, politics, and the media on crisis communication practices in Chinese societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The civil war in mainland China during 1945–1949 resulted in an enormous influx of immigrants to Taiwan, the majority of whom were single male soldiers in their twenties or thirties. In addition, a military marriage ban prevented most of the immigrant soldiers from getting married until 1959. These two factors have profound, but distinct, influences on the effective prime-age sex ratio in the marriage market in post-war Taiwan. Unfortunately, the official population data in Taiwan excluded the military and thus did not reveal the true male population until the late 1960s. This paper proposes a method to impute the effective prime-age sex ratio. The imputation result shows that the effective prime-age sex ratio first rose in the 1950s, peaked in the 1960s, and then declined in the 1970s. At its peak, as many as 120 men were competing for only 100 women in the marriage market. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In Taiwan, economic marginalization has become a major concern that has resulted from the fast growing Chinese economy, imbalanced cross-strait economic and political relations, and a failure to participate in important international trade and financial organizations. Is a China-Taiwan policy cooperative mechanism the best choice for Taiwan's economic welfare? This paper is to measure Taiwan's economic marginalization by an international policy coordination approach instead of the conventional free trade agreements. We simulate macro-economic adjustments of Taiwan and its main economic partners (China and the US) according to the different institutional scenarios and economic shocks. The baseline simulation and sensitivity analyses imply that at the current stage policy coordination between China and Taiwan cannot come into effect without the US's participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Chinese cultural tradition, numbers may be seen as meaningful, creative, even poetic things, and they figure prominently in accounts of the self. Rather than 'reducing people to numbers', quantification is used - by at least some people some of the time - as a mode of differentiating themselves from others, a means of narrating unique life experiences. This paper explores the role of numbers in accounts of the self, drawing primarily on a case study of one woman from rural Taiwan. It is suggested that a natural historical framework can help illuminate numbers and number systems as Chinese technologies of the imagination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on Robert Mundell's proposal for an Asian multi-currency monetary union, this paper provides a framework to analyze whether a prospective Chinese currency union can be sustained after suffering from various shocks. An important assumption is that China and Taiwan can coordinate their economic policies without losing their independent national currencies. A dynamic game approach simulates possible outcomes if a China-Taiwan cooperative mechanism were to be implemented. The results show that the China-Taiwan coalition can be feasible under the shock of currency appreciation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines issues resulting from the debate on the university as a public good or a private commodity by drawing case studies from Taiwan and China. Owing to similar cultural influences, Taiwan and China can serve as good examples for comparison; they are countries that have undergone a drastic university restructuring process with respect to origin of policy change, reform initiatives, outcomes, and future challenges. The author concludes that the results of transforming universities based on market economies have engendered mixed feelings because most universities have been driven from public good to private commodity standards. The current debate in both countries also holds some commonality among neighbouring countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Taiwanese venture capital industry provides an intriguing study. The primary objective of this paper is to present a general overview of the industry that captures the realities of Taiwanese venture capitalists' everyday business activities while explaining issues and trends through historical analysis and discussions of future possibilities. Utilizing statistical information, previous research, and extensive interviews with the island's venture capitalists, we discuss the emergence of the four current models of venture capital activity in Taiwan— financial subsidiary, industrial subsidiary, independent and associate companies. This leads to an introduction of the four paths most commonly cited by Taiwanese VCs as roads to future growth: new industries, new markets, the bridge proposition and the real VC . Each of these paths provides a springboard for tackling deeper issues the industry has wrestled with and will continue to wrestle with, including: its relationship with the island's core industries, its ability to successfully operate in foreign markets, the value of potential cross-Pacific synergies, and the value proposition for the variety of business services Taiwanese VCs provide. We conclude with a discussion on the fate of the island's innovation system, specifically the potential for Taiwan to strengthen its new-product innovation capacity and the future of professionalism in the Taiwanese VC industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1950s and 1960s, the Republic of China on Taiwan (ROC) not only distrusted, but also feared, the People's Republic of China (PRC)'s assertion to be peace-loving. The reason was that the PRC used its peacefulness claim to negotiate whether the ROC or the PRC should represent 'China' in the United Nations, based on a specific definition of 'peacefulness' and on the socialist World Peace Movement as a platform of public diplomacy and international networking. This explains a function of the PRC's peacefulness claim in the Cold War and rewrites the chronology of the PRC's gradual United Nations entry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the soft power capital and public diplonwcy strategies of Taiwan and the People's Republic of China. The premise is that Taiwan's international status and the absence of formal diplomatic recognition by major powers are a serious constraint on Taiwan's ability engage in meartingful outreach with the global community. The focus of the discussion is a paradox: Taiwan should be more successful at soft power since it is the personification of political values which should make it attractive to the liberal-democratic world; and yet the People's Republic of China - an authoritanan regime - is attracting far more attention and seems to possess and exercise far more soft power capital than Taiwan. This suggests that measurements of hard power and the models advanced by traditional approaches to international relations are more convincing ways to understand Taiwan's present predicament and its soft power. However, current strategies - operationalised by both Taiwan and the PRC ∼ enjoy limited success for different reasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of stalled multilateral trade negotiations, major trading economies are seeking free trade agreements (FTAs) to secure their market access objectives. Nowhere is this dynamic stronger than in East Asia, where a web of bilateral and plurilateral agreements is stitching together piecewise an Asian free trade area that could plausibly rival the EU and NAFTA trade blocs and where the possibility of a formal pan-Asian agreement has been raised. Taiwan has been largely excluded from this dynamic. However, with the June 29, 2010 signing of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with China, the possibility of Taiwan joining the FTA dance in East Asia would appear to have been greatly strengthened as the advocates had anticipated. This article considers the economic and trade implications of Taiwan's participation versus non-participation in an emerging East Asian trade bloc. We support our analysis with simulations using the GTAP computable general equilibrium model. The article finds that the benefits to Taiwan of participating in such a bloc have increased, as have the opportunity costs of exclusion, since the share of East Asian partners in its trade has risen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intellectual property rights (IPR) protection is a big concern for multinational corporations (MNCs) deciding where to locate their overseas R&D units. The top management team of an MNC must know the techniques of protecting the firm's valuable innovation in a country with weak IPR protection. Unfortunately, few studies in the literature address this topic. A case study of three Taiwanese IT firms that have intensive R&D activities in mainland China, examines the techniques they have adopted to protect their valuable IPR. These techniques encompass legal mechanisms, secrecy, lead time, and complementary capabilities. INSETS: The Three Companies Studied;IPR in Mainland China. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Family reunification has become a widely recognized means to move across borders in the contemporary world. As a migration strategy, family reunification redefines the relationship of kinship to nation, diversifying the ‘national family’ and its gendered role expectations. This article uses cross-border marriages between Chinese and Taiwanese to interrogate how immigration affects the experiences of men who migrate through or in conjunction with marriage, integrating scales of family, citizenship, and nation in an analysis of migrant masculinity. Migrant husbands describe their disempowerment as male providers and citizens through the patrilineal and patrilocal kinship language of having ‘married out.’ The article examines the salience of this kinship model for immigrant husbands seeking to redefine their relationship to patrilineal gender privileges and secure citizenship status. How do men who migrate through marriage negotiate gendered kinship principles that may work to their benefit in their home country but undermine their status once they migrate? How does the experience of migrating as a kin-dependent threaten men’s self-image as family providers? By investigating these challenges to hegemonic masculinity, the article asks how migration reconfigures the gendered foundations of family formation by undermining kinship-based models of normative masculinity and creating a gender crisis for some migrant husbands. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We examine the puzzling phenomenon that authoritarian governments are perceived to be more responsive than democratic governments. By comparing China and Taiwan by both large-N statistical analyses and in-depth case studies, we show that the answer lies in the differences between democratic and authoritarian institutions. First, failing to elect one’s preferred candidate in democracies predisposes voters to critical assessment of government responsiveness. There is no such predisposition in authoritarian countries where elections are nonexistent or nominal. Second, elections incentivize democratic leaders to over-respond to certain groups. There is no such mechanism in authoritarian countries. Third, the solid and clear legitimacy established by electoral victories shield democratic leaders from particularistic demands made through unconventional channels. Without such legitimacy, authoritarian leaders are compelled to cement legitimacy by increasing responsiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

‘Cross-Straits Relations’ is the title given by the protagonists to the relations that evolved in the past 20 years between Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China. Designed to create confidence-building measures and trust and avoid military confrontation in a frozen, abeyant intractable conflict, these ties have grown enormously in trade volume, investments and people’s exchange. The following article poses the question of whether such relations between two hostile regimes might serve as a model for future conflict management of the hot and active intractable conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and eventually the Arab countries with which Israel does not yet have peace treaties. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Cross-strait Economic Cooperation Agreement (ECFA), signed on in 2010 between China and Taiwan, is the first regional preferential agreement for Taiwan, which is seen as a significant turning point in China-Taiwan relations and a landmark to promote Asia’s overall economic development. This article introduces the ECFA’s aim and discusses its implications for future economic relations between China and Taiwan while reviewing overall and specific statistics data of trades and investment flows. With the fourth anniversary of the enactment of the ECFA, the trade volume seems to increase, but the trends and components shows a further integration in the region, implying the post-ECFA trend sheds light on China and Taiwan’s solid cooperation on production networks of information, communication, and solar panel related products with ASEAN countries, as well as the RMB internationalization opportunity for the future AIIB framework for China. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Jeremy Lin was largely unknown prior to the phenomenon known as ‘Linsanity’ in February 2012. This piece compares and contrasts the ways in which Lin's story – and in particular his cultural, political and national identity – has played out in the USA, Taiwan and China, and also shows how the identities created for Lin in each of these three places constitute his ‘three bodies’. The USA, China and Taiwan all lay some claim on Lin's identity. Answers to basic questions about Lin diverge in each place. The US story focuses on issues of race and overlooked ability. In China, much attention is given to Lin's intellectual and athletic abilities, as well as his ‘Chineseness’. In Taiwan, broadcasters and politicians alike highlight his Taiwanese identity, and emphasise how Lin's success shows the value of non-academic training. Writers in all three countries have focused on lessons to be learned from Lin, with humility, team spirit, hard work and family values taking prominent place. In cross-strait relations, the long-time Cold War enemies remain diplomatically isolated yet economically and culturally intertwined. The Lin story displays the curious moment in People's Republic of China–Republic of China relations in which celebrities can treat the divide between the countries as permeable. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This is a translation of an article that reconsiders the controversy surrounding the Satō Eisaku Cabinet's China policy from 1970 to 1972. Previous studies have not focused sufficiently on how top officials in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs discussed China policy during this era. Based on recently declassified but still fragmentary Japanese diplomatic documents, this article, by carefully organizing these fragments and then comparing them with previously published secondary sources and declassified US diplomatic documents, uncovers historical facts of central importance for understanding Japan's postwar foreign policy. In particular, this article finds that the Foreign Ministry failed to formulate a strategic response to the drastic transformation of the international situation in the early 1970s, thereby indicating that discord within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party was not the only reason for Japan's delayed and reactive response. It also finds that the Ministry decided to establish diplomatic relations with China and severe relations with Taiwan as early as immediately after the Taiwanese government was expelled from the U.N. in October 1971, even though Japan waited for nearly another year before acting. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article is the first systematic attempt at estimating the size of Taiwanese foreign aid and, thus, the cost of Taiwan's aid diplomacy. It questions the Republic of China (ROC) President Ma Ying-jeou's justification of his 'diplomatic truce' with China as necessitated by an ineffectiveness of his predecessor Chen Shui-bian's costly aid diplomacy. Deriving its evidence from the ROC governmental budgets, local media reports and interviews with Taiwanese officials involved in foreign aid implementation, the article argues that President Chen did not engage in 'generous financial aid' and proposes that this parsimony, rather than futility of aid diplomacy as a strategy to expand Taiwan's international space, should be considered as contributing to Taipei's diplomatic failures from 2000 to 2008. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China and Taiwan have become important actors in South Pacific affairs due to their diplomatic rivalry. Securing the diplomatic recognition of the Pacific Islands countries is expensive for China and Taiwan. There are limits to what the rivals are willing to spend, and they attempt to reduce costs. This dynamic shapes how Taiwan and China engage Pacific Islands politicians. It also motivates their high level official visits to the region, and how they engage South Pacific regional organizations. Despite criticisms that China-Taiwan rivalry corrupts and destabilizes the South Pacific, the issue of whether China and Taiwan's diplomatic rivalry has been beneficial or detrimental to the region remains contentious. China and Taiwan appear to have recently called a truce in their decades-old rivalry. This tacit agreement is still tentative, and the involvement of China and Taiwan in the region has yet to change significantly. However, Taiwan has reportedly begun to reduce funding, and is likely to reform its aid delivery in order to satisfy demands from the South Pacific region's dominant power, Australia, and to improve its image as a humanitarian aid donor. China is also likely to reduce funding while the truce holds. However, China considers its ties with South Pacific governments more important than responding to Australian pressure, and is unlikely to reform its South Pacific aid programmes as a result of the diplomatic truce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1990, 19 Workshops on Managing Potential Conflicts in the South China Sea have been held. The Workshop, attended by Government and military officials in their private capacities as well as by academics mainly from the littoral States of the South China Sea (SCS) and from the non-SCS countries, is a continuing dialogue process that aims to manage potential conflicts by exploring areas of cooperation among the littoral States in the SCS area. It is also the only regional dialogue mechanism dealing specifically with the SCS issues, where scholars and Government officials from Taiwan and China can meet regularly and exchange views. This article reviews and evaluates the SCS Workshop process and discusses Taiwan's participation in the process. In the concluding section, the adoption of the China-Taiwan South-East Asia Network for Education and Training (SEA-NET) joint project at the nineteenth SCS Workshop, a big step regarding Taiwan's participation in the Workshop process, is discussed. And it is suggested that there likely will be more cooperative measures taken by Taipei and Beijing regarding the SCS area in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the first time accounts of the biology of Proterops borneoensis Szepligeti, 1902 (Braconidae: Ichneutinae), and its host Cibdela janthina (Klug, 1834) (Argidae) are provided. Proterops borneoensis is reported from northern Sumatra as a parasitoid of Cibdela janthina feeding on Rubus alceifolius Poir. between 369 and 914 m altitude. For the first time a key to the Old World species of the genus Proterops Wesmael is given and a new species from Taiwan (Proterops bicolorinus van Achterberg, sp. nov.) is included. Proterops borneoensis and Proterops fumosus Belokobylskij, 1993, are reported from Nepal and northeast China, respectively. Proterops basalis Walker, 1874, is excluded from Proterops and synonymized with Snellenius theretrae (Watanabe, 1937): Snellenius basalis (Walker) syn. nov. and comb. nov. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent naval ship visits and exchanges of goodwill between China and Japan suggest an improvement in the two countries' bilateral relationship, which had been steadily deteriorating since the late 1990s. In the longer term, however, Sino-Japanese relations will likely be tested or constrained by five key sets of issues: (1) territorial and resource disputes, (2) nationalism and issues of mutual antipathy, (3) Taiwan's political status, (4) the rapid rise of China's military power, and (5) the U.S.-Japan security alliance. The manner in which these issues are managed or resolved will likely play a major role in shaping the Sino-Japanese relationship and thus the overall geopolitical environment in East Asia. A key complicating factor in the relationship, however, is the persistence of divergent worldviews: Chinese leaders appear to be more consistently persuaded by realist notions of international politics, whereas Japanese leaders tend to favor liberal-institutionalist values. The two countries may use these different lenses to view the same incident or issue, potentially creating misunderstanding and miscalculation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of Taiwan and relations across the Taiwan Strait is not only of fundamental interest to China, but also crucial to peace and stability in the Asian Pacific, thereby also making it of key concern to major players such as the United States and Japan. Beijing has faced enormous challenges over how to solve its dilemma. I would like to achieve reunification with Taiwan through a peaceful path, but perceive that it must be prepared for a war scenario if Taiwan insists on breaking from the mainland for its independence. The dilemma facing Beijing in terms of war or peace with Taiwan has become more acute since the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) moved to power in 2000. This article analyses Beijing's dilemma over the above policy choices by examining five stages of Beijing's assessment toward regime change in Taiwan from late 1999 to early 2005. It also illuminates the potential impact on major power relations in East Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study compares the music taught and its associated cultural values in Shanghai and Taipei primary and secondary schools. Both owe their cultural ascendancy to traditional Chinese music and western musicology. How do the music education systems of these two Chinese communities reflect their respective public cultures and political ideologies? Data from a sample of 3204 Shanghai and Taipei Chinese school students showed that tensions between classroom music activities and pupils' musical preferences arose from the difficult preservation of cultural and political identity in both Mainland China and Taiwan. Dilemmas concerning the use of music for patriotic and ideological purposes are also discussed in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]