The making of Taiwan's mainland policy: Milieu, state, and decision-making.

Abstract

There are very few scholars who have written on Taiwan's mainland policy-making. With all variables and arguments that have been explored in this dissertation, the mainland policy-making in Taiwan is essentially a unique one, and continues to be a heuristic case in the world with regard to the divided-nations and asymmetrical confronting regimes. The hypothesis in this dissertation is that the international and domestic situation fluctuations are the two decisive elements which compel Taipei decision makers increasingly alter their mainland policy (from "three nos" to broad exchanges). Recently the changing political environment in Taiwan and the more realistic views of the new generation of policy makers are challenging these ideological beliefs (three nos policy). In addition, the different decision-making procedure is a contributing factor which affects the mainland policy directly. It is a critical time to give the Taiwan's mainland policy an intensive examination in order to understand how to keep a collective security in the Northeast Asia. While examining the vicissitudes of Taiwan-mainland Chinese relations during the past four decades, three important factors must be taken into account: one is the United States position in China's unification issue; the second is the domestic changes on both sides of the Taiwan Strait; the third, the unification strategy used by the two rival parties. With these three factors in mind, it is easy to understand the entire package of relationship between Beijing and Taipei. The primary focus of this dissertation is to examine the Nationalist mainland policy under the pressure of the "Taiwan issue," since 1950, and also the causes and factors of the "Taiwan democratization" which make the Taipei leaders partially shift their policy toward the mainland Communist.