Cross-Strait Relations since 1949: From Radicalism to Conservatism and Back Again

Abstract

A consideration of changing nationalist dynamics offers a useful narrative for understanding relations across the Taiwan Strait since 1949. It is argued that nationalist discourses in China and Taiwan have moved through periods of relative conservatism and relative radicalism and that understanding these changes is key to explaining the on-going shifts of accommodation and hostility across the Strait. While not excluding international and elite level politics, this narrative enables a consideration of societal level issues in the relationship and suggests a periodisation of cross-Strait tensions located within the dynamics of internal politics rather than according to the problematic and sometimes unsatisfactory dictates of external global or international frameworks such as the Cold War.