Problems of the China-Taiwan relations : how did the Taiwanese identity influence the reunification project since 1992 ?

Details

Supervisors

Atanassova, Elena

Faculty

Faculté des sciences économiques, sociales, politiques et de communication

Degree label

Master [120] en sciences politiques, orientation relations internationales

Abstract

Since the beginning of the post-Martial Law Era on the island, a question remains unanswered: should Taiwan seek unification with the mainland, seek independence or remain in a status quo ? In 2018, the public opinion is in majority in favour of (limited or infinite) status quo, but we can see a drop in the support for (later) unification and a slight increase in support for (later) independence. Starting with the postulate that the foreign policy is influenced by the domestic public opinion, in this case defined by national identity, this paper aims to look at how the identity is transformed by the Taiwanese political elite through discourses and policy-making. On the other hand, the paper looks at how the transformed identity then served the foreign policies of the successive democratic administrations regarding the reunification issue.