Taiwan During the First Administration of Tsai Ing-wen: Navigating in Stormy Waters(Routledge Research on Taiwan Series)

This book offers a substantive assessment of the first Tsai Ing-wen administration, investigating different policy fields and issues from 2016 to 2020, prior to Tsai’s election for a second term. Providing a balanced account of government performance under Tsai’s Ing-wen’s reign, chapters in this edited volume combine theory and extensive empirical data to highlight both achievements and shortfalls of her administration. Chapters range comprehensively from topics of the implementation of same-sex marriage, curriculum reform, ‘transitional justice’, industrial policy and pension reform, which have been celebrated by domestic Tsai Ing-wen supporters, but have also met with considerable opposition from within Taiwanese society. Externally, cross-strait relations, the New Southbound Policy and the triangular relationship with China and the USA, which embodied major challenges for Tsai’s first administration, are also analysed as key reference points throughout. Featuring contributions from twenty six internationally renowned Taiwan scholars, Taiwan During the First Administration of Tsai Ing-wen is an essential resource for students and scholars of Taiwanese politics and society, cross-strait relations and international relations.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction 2. Situating Tsai Ing-wen’s First Term: Three Decades of Presidential Discourse in Taiwan 3. Tsai Ing-wen, The Sandwich President 4. Liang’an vs. Kua’an: The two Dimensions of Taiwan-China Relations during the First Tsai Administration 5. Decoding the Cyber Strait: Taiwan’s Responses to the Chinese Cyber Threat under Tsai Ing-wen 6. The Increasing Irrelevance of Industrial Policy in Taiwan, 2016-2020 7. The War of Referendums in 2018: Analysing the Interaction between Social Movements and Political Parties 8. The Rough-and-Tumble of Taiwan’s Pension Reform in the First Administration of Tsai Ing-wen, 2016-2020 9. The Reorientation of History Teaching in Taiwan’s 12-year Basic Education 10. A Noble Dream Undelivered: The Quest for Transitional Justice During Tsai Ing-wen’s First Term 11. "It’s not marriage!": Framing and Mobilizing in the Anti-Same-Sex Marriage Movement 12. Productivity, Cohesion and Dignity: The Contestation of Migration Policy under the First Tsai Ing-wen Administration 13. Assessing the First Years of Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy: The Case of Vietnam 14. Stronger than Ever? US-Taiwan Relations during the First Tsai Administration 15. Taiwan, Japan, and the EU under the Tsai Administration’s New Southbound Policy: Viable Alternatives? 16. Trilateral Humanitarian Aid: Continuities and Changes of Taiwan’s ODA Policy before and during the First Administration of Tsai Ing-wen

About the Author :
Gunter Schubert is Chair Professor of Greater China Studies and director of the European Resarch Center on Contemporary Taiwan (ERCCT) Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen. He specialises in local governance in the PRC, cross-strait political economy, Taiwanese politics and the changing global order under the impact of China’s rise. Chun-yi Lee is Associate Professor at school of Politics and International Relations, University of Nottingham. She is also the Director of the Taiwan Studies Programme at University of Nottingham. Chun-yi’s research interest is in cross-strait relationship, and China’s impact on global political economy.