Taiwan: A Political History [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

While funded by the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, Denny Roy states the foundation never attempted to influence his analysis. But it seems clear overall that his generally competent book is based primarily on secondary sources in English, which itself imparts a bias towards the scholarship of the past, heavily shaped by Taiwan government sources and academic funding.

This is not of course his particular failing, but the nature of the available literature, especially English literature, at this time. It is only in the last five years or so that Taiwan scholars have been able to receive stipends and recognition for study of Taiwan history; before the early 1990s their work was more likely to be suppressed.

Given that as it may be, Roy still has not digested the English materials on widely-known events of the opposition movement that led up to the present Democratic Progressive Party presidency; he is unfamiliar with the figures and their roles. (Examples cited.) These are indicative of a general bent in Roy¡s presentation, but more importantly he seems to miss the significance of Taiwan¡s mass movements, and he buries the events, as well as the continuity of the groups and the ideological advances involved, in chronologically scattered reports organized by abstract categories.

Roy says, ¡§Most of the public preferred keeping martial law and cared less about seeking independence than about other matters such as crime, pollution, and the cost of living¡. (p. 162) Is he reporting a misconceived poll, or KMT apologetics, without attribution? With only superficial understanding of the concerted and continuing mass mobilization of the opposition, despite persecution that chilled much public expression (indeed Roy does relate long series of such persecutions, he just does not draw the logical political inferences), it is no wonder that Chiang Ching-kuo¡s pronouncements appear to the author as the vanguard of democratization.

It is only late in Roy¡s account, with his diatribe against President Lee Teng-hui, that we can get the sense that he veers towards the New Party position of Chinese nationalism, albeit one melded with the current pragmatism of economic success in Taiwan, abandoning the KMT¡s early anti-communism to welcome economic integration with China. (The New Party, led by younger generation Mainlanders, split from the KMT in 1995 as it became increasingly dominated by native Taiwanese under Lee Teng-hui.) We wonder how he knows that following Lee Teng-hui¡s 1996 election with 54% of the popular vote in defiance of Beijing¡s missile threats, ¡§Still, most Asians wished Taiwan would stop resisting and accept unification with the PRC under the ¡¥one country, two systems¡ formula.¡ (p. 202) Similarly, he continually depicts the DPP as backtracking on or embarrassed by the issue of Taiwan independence; yes, the DPP has backtracked in rhetoric as it has advanced in substance, but not to the degree or for the reasons depicted by Roy.

Roy¡s assimilation of the New Party position, which decries KMT corruption and legalization of presidential power under Lee Teng-hui, but speaks with nostalgia of the dictatorships of Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo that had little concern for constitutional or legal process, is obvious ¡K That is, the Chinese nationalists and Mainlander supporters of the old regime want to portray corruption as caused by native Taiwanese coming to power -- rather than as the structural operation of the KMT that habitually favored and sinecured its minions, but now was increasingly compelled to co-opt the local Taiwanese factions with illegitimate patronage, as its ability to rule by fiat and martial law weakened in the late 1980¡s. True to this portrayal, Roy repeats twice that James Soong (Soong Chu-yu, a Mainlander, was Director of the Government Information Office under Chiang Ching-kuo; and narrowly-defeated Presidential candidate in 2000) had a reputations for integrity. but fails to mention Soong Chu-yu¡s largess to local factions and contractors during his eight years as provincial governor that left him poised for his presidential bid in 2000; Soong's Hsin Piao scandal; or his son's five houses in San Francisco.

Once the reader has factored in this bias, however, Roy¡s chapters seven and eight on developments since the mid-nineties are the best part of the book, and at least they describe most relevant issues and events of the period with a sense that the author has been on the scene.

I hope the author is not too stung by these criticisms to work on a revision of this book, which certainly shows a great deal of ambition and effort in encompassing such a large sweep of history, up to the present unfolding events. I think that with about two years immersion in Taiwan society, especially with more personal contact with the recent dark side of this history, e.g. interviewing former political prisoners or reading Elegy of Sweet Potatoes about the White Terror, and also as Taiwan historical studies unfold over the next few years, the author can produce an analytic narrative that is much closer to the center of balance.

The democratization of Taiwan (much like that of South Korea) remains an important test case for the growth of democracy outside the western world - a political transition that occurred primarily because of domestic factors. My own interest in reading this book was to investigate, more fully, Taiwan's move to democracy. From a comparative politics point of view, the Taiwan case is a very rich one. Roy's book provides the reader with a well crafted synopsis of Taiwan's move to democracy. This kind of work should inform wider literature on comparative politics and social movements. Roy analyses the role of the elite, the competing forces within society and the international community in considering these changes. The case of Taiwan's democratization seems to run parallel to that of some other nearby countries where domestic and international pressures prompt a shift of thinking within the political elite of an authoritarian polity. However, recent times also show cases where the political elite have resisted domestic pressure (Burma being a good case). Roy makes a sound case that Taiwan's leadership, and President Chiang Ching-kuo in particular, made a series of fundamental political changes in the late 1980s out of enlightened self-interest.

The complex issue of Taiwan's "identity" is also something that an outsider will understand more fully from Roy's volume. The book explains something of the early interaction between Taiwan and mainland China, as well as the waves of migrations that have occurred. Identity in Taiwan, as Roy explains, has remained a salient issue within Taiwanese politics, even if the merging of community has blurred this in recent times. While the debate over Taiwan's status vis-a-vis the PRC is the most obvious political faultline, the divide between "Taiwanese" and "Mainlanders" has been of overlapping importance. The book also devotes some space to the fortunes of the indigenous "mountain tribes", which have faced terrible discrimination in the past. As many modern democracies face up to the difficulties experienced by indigenous minorities, this too is an important part of the Taiwan narrative.

Some might complain that Roy's volume is based too much on English language sources, yet this does not detract from the author's ability to tell Taiwan's story. In fact, this is a very welcome book. I wish I had had it as a source book to draw on when I was still lecturing.

Despite this thoroughness, the book is fairly short. Roy writes concisely and clearly, but still manages to make smooth transitions between different political themes in Taiwan's history. The middle section of the book is the best, consisting of an excellent write-up on Taiwan's role in the Cold War as well as a chapter on the political reformers' struggle against martial law and KMT dominance.

For most of the book Roy relies on a good mix of both Chinese- and English-language sources. I was disappointed, however, to see him relying almost exclusively on English-language sources over the last fifty pages. Taiwan's print media are addicted to scandal-mongering, but in the hands of someone who knows how to use them, they are still the best source of information on Taiwan's political scene -- far better than any of the English-language newspapers.

In spite of this lapse, this is an outstanding survey of Taiwan. Roy has good command of the material and writes well. Even in areas I thought I knew, he usually added something to my knowledge.