The End of Agency? Future of China and Taiwan’s Strategic Options.

In the wake of a seemingly decline of Pax Americana built upon democracy and free markets, China is expanding its sphere of influence beyond East Asia with growing interdependence with rest of world as well as providing an alternative model of authoritarian power and economic success. Meanwhile, China is encountered with exacerbating huge domestic discrepancies in economic, regional or social domains. Given China’s embeddings in an interpenetrating and complex environment posed by American lingering leadership and its own domestic problems, what is the prospect of its development in circumventing structural constraints? On the other hand, the Taiwan issue has been a leftover problem of Cold War for decades. It becomes even more complicated to be tackled in the context of China’s rise. To be sure, the power of the ascending China was partly augmented through the diffusion of -one China’ policy across many nations, which in many ways has led to the institutionalization of Taiwan as a -non-state actor.’ What are the options Taiwan has now? To what extent is Taiwan able to assert its agency in face with the rise of China and growing institutionalization of cross-Strait/-One China’ status quo? This paper aims to deal with the dual issues of agency and structure in related to China and Taiwan in the world. This requires tracing and outlining the historical development of the dual issues faced by either side of the Taiwan Strait. In the end, the paper will offer some observations on the prospect of development and options opened for both sides. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]