Event Date: November 9, 2018 - 2:30pm to 4:00pm
Location: FSS4004, 120 Université Privé
Presented by CIPS and the Research Chair on Taiwan Studies
Since Tsai Ing-wen’s election as President of Taiwan in January 2016, the relations across the Taiwan Strait have deteriorated. China had decided to ignore the Tsai Administration, isolate Taiwan on the international stage and intensified its military intimidations around the island. More importantly, the Chinese Communist Party even more so its united front work towards Taiwanese society. Using its unprecedented rise as a leverage, China also wants everyone to believe, particularly the Chinese society, that the reunification process has already started and is in full swing.
Nonetheless, the success of this strategy is far from being guaranteed. While Ms. Tsai’s popularity is declining, most Taiwanese continue to support the status quo, in other words are opposed to any form of unification with China. The Taiwanese identity keeps consolidating. The New Southbound Policy is contributing to diversifying Taiwan’s economic relations. And United States’ security support has remained strong, and even stronger than before under the Trump Administration.
In this new context, what can Taiwan expect? What is Taiwan’s future?
Jean-Pierre Cabestan is Professor, Department of Government and International Studies at Hong Kong Baptist University. He is also associate researcher at the Asia Centre, Paris and at the French Centre for Research on Contemporary China, Hong Kong. His main themes of research are Chinese politics and law, China’s foreign and security policies, China-Taiwan relations and Taiwanese politics. His most recent publications include Political Changes in Taiwan Under Ma Ying-jeou. Partisan Conflict, Policy Choices, External Constraints and Security Challenges (co-edited with Jacques deLisle), Abingdon, Oxon & New York, Routledge, 2014; Tanzania-China All-Weather Friendship in the Era of Multipolarity, (with Jean-Raphaël Chaponnière), Saarbrücken, Lambert Academic Publishing, 2017 and Demain la Chine: Démocratie ou Dictature? (Tomorrow’s China: Democracy or Dictatorship?), Paris, Gallimard, Coll. “Le Débat”, 2018.
This event is in English with bilingual Q and A.