Two Books on Taiwan Reviewed by Syaru Shirley Lin
Taiwan in Dynamic Transition: Nation Building and Democratization
Edited by Ryan Dunch and Ashley Esarey
256 pp, University of Washington Press, 2020
Difficult Choices: Taiwan’s Quest for Security and the Good Life
By Richard C. Bush
429 pp, Brookings Institution Press, 2021
Understanding Taiwan is more important today than ever before, given rising U.S.-Chinese tensions and great-power rivalry. But Taiwan is more than an international hot spot. It is also relevant because although it has emerged from the pandemic as one of the most resilient democracies, with an effective public health system and a stellar economy, it is grappling with difficult long-term problems that are also plaguing other high-income societies.
Both books will help readers understand one of the most important elements of Taiwan’s transformation: how its emerging democracy, changing national identity, and civic values inform its management of domestic and international challenges. Both books also illustrate the difficulties in building policy consensus in a democracy with a high level of public participation. As Bush argues, Taiwan must overcome its divisions on domestic issues and foreign relations if it is to continue to survive and succeed. Taken together, the two books suggest that both China and the United States need to reexamine their policies toward the island, some of which seem rooted in a past that Taiwan is increasingly leaving behind.