JUST MERCY: The Taiwan Straits Crises in the Color of Law

Since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in October 1949 and the establishment of the defeated Kuomintang (KMT) exile rule on the island two months later, China's relationship with Taiwan has been fraught with conflict. The KMT's insistence on continuing to represent not just Taiwan but all of China initially led to challenges to the island's autonomous sovereignty; later, Taiwan refused to yield sovereignty to the then-dominant power that had developed on the other side of the Taiwan Strait.
Taiwan is not just a security concern; rather, it is a ganglion of interconnected problems, which is one of the things that makes it so politically challenging and intellectually fascinating. The Democratic Progressive Party's resounding triumph, which has made clear its intention to separate Taiwan from China's political embrace, dashed the bright hopes of the Ma Ying-jeou administration for a new era of peace and collaboration. Now that the situation has become tense, the Taiwanese are waiting with baited breath. What chance does Taiwan have in the absence of dйtente, and why did it fail? Three facets of the developing conundrum are the focus of the volume's contributors: nationalistic identity, social economy, and political strategy.