Stanford University

Democracy

Taiwan's Place in the Evolving Security Environment of East Asia

Paragraphs

In March 2018 the Taiwan Democracy and Security Project, a part of the U.S.-Asia Security Initiative at Stanford University’s Shorenstein Asia- Pacific Research Center, convened a workshop that examined Taiwan’s place in the evolving security environment of East Asia. Participants from the United States, Taiwan, and elsewhere in Asia were experts on a wide array of economic, diplomatic, and security topics. The discussions at the workshop were intended to place Taiwan’s security challenges in a broader regional context, to consider possible obstacles to and opportunities for greater multilateral cooperation on security issues, and to devise a set of recommendations for steps that Taiwan and its friends and partners could take to enhance regional security relationships.

This workshop report provides an executive summary, policy recommendations for both the United States and Taiwan, and a summary of workshop sessions.

All Publications button
1
Publication Type
Policy Briefs
Publication Date
Authors
Kharis Templeman, Ph.D.

Dynasties and Democracy: The Inherited Incumbency Advantage in Japan

Paragraphs

Although democracy is, in principle, the antithesis of dynastic rule, families with multiple members in elective office continue to be common around the world. In most democracies, the proportion of such "democratic dynasties" declines over time, and rarely exceeds ten percent of all legislators. Japan is a startling exception, with over a quarter of all legislators in recent years being dynastic. In Dynasties and Democracy, Daniel M. Smith sets out to explain when and why dynasties persist in democracies, and why their numbers are only now beginning to wane in Japan—questions that have long perplexed regional experts.

Smith introduces a compelling comparative theory to explain variation in the presence of dynasties across democracies and political parties. Drawing on extensive legislator-level data from twelve democracies and detailed candidate-level data from Japan, he examines the inherited advantage that members of dynasties reap throughout their political careers—from candidate selection, to election, to promotion into cabinet. Smith shows how the nature and extent of this advantage, as well as its consequences for representation, vary significantly with the institutional context of electoral rules and features of party organization. His findings extend far beyond Japan, shedding light on the causes and consequences of dynastic politics for democracies around the world.
 
Daniel M. Smith is an associate professor in the Department of Government at Harvard University. During the 2012-13 academic year, he was a Shorenstein Postdoctoral Fellow at Shorenstein APARC.
All Publications button
1
Publication Type
Books
Publication Date
Authors
Number
978-1-503605-05-3

Sentiment, Reason, and Law: Policing in the Republic of China on Taiwan

-

The Republic of China on Taiwan spent nearly four decades as a single-party state under dictatorial rule (1949-1987) before transitioning to liberal democracy. This talk is based on an ethnographic study of street-level police practices during the first rotation in executive power following the democratic transition (i.e. the first term of the Chen Shui-bian administration, 2000-2004). Summarizing the argument of a forthcoming book, Dr. Jeffrey T. Martin focuses on an apparent paradox, in which the strength of Taiwan's democracy is correlated to the weakness of its police powers. Martin explains this paradox through a theory of "jurisdictional pluralism" which, in Taiwan, is  organized by a cultural distinction between sentiment, reason, and law as distinct foundations for political authority. An overt police interest in sentiment (qing) was institutionalized during the martial law era, when police served as an instrument for the cultivation of properly nationalistic political sentiments. Martin's fieldwork demonstrates how the politics of sentiment which took shape under autocratic rule continued to operate in everyday policing in the early phase of the democratic transformation, even as a more democratic mode of public reason and the ultimate power of legal right were becoming more significant.

jmart
Jeffrey T. Martin is an assistant professor in the Departments of Anthropology and East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. He specializes in the anthropological study of modern policing, and has conducted research in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the USA. His research interests focus on historical continuity and change in police culture, especially as this culture reflects specific changes in the legal, bureaucratic, or technical dimensions of police operations. Prior to joining the University of Illinois, Dr. Martin taught in the Sociology Department at the University of Hong Kong, and in the Graduate Institute of Taiwan Studies at Chang Jung Christian University.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jeffrey T. Martin <i>Assistant Professor, Anthropology and East Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign</i>
Seminars

Taiwan's Place in the Evolving Security Environment of East Asia

-

Over the last dozen years, Taiwan’s democracy has deepened in important ways. Executive power has rotated twice, from the DPP’s Chen Shui-bian to the KMT’s Ma Ying-jeou in 2008, and from Ma to the DPP’s Tsai Ing-wen in 2016. The majority in the legislature also changed for the first time in 2016, from the KMT to the DPP. Taiwan’s most recent overall Freedom House ranking is 93/100, significantly higher than the United States. Its freedom of the press ranking is the highest in all of Asia, ahead of Korea and even Japan, and its rule of law and anti-corruption scores are trending in a positive direction as well.

To be sure, serious concerns remain about the practice of democracy in Taiwan, including a poorly institutionalized and often chaotic lawmaking process, incomplete legislative oversight of executive branch actions, and a partisan and increasingly fragmented media environment. Nevertheless, the greatest threat to Taiwan’s continued place among the world’s liberal democracies now appears to be external, not internal. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has always posed an existential threat to Taiwan, but its growing economic influence, rapid military modernization, assertive territorial claims in the region, and aggressive global efforts to isolate Taiwan have accelerated in recent years. Put simply, Taiwan’s long-term future as a democracy is imperiled by China’s rise.

The PRC’s growing power presents difficult security challenges for most of the countries in the Asia-Pacific region, not just for Taiwan. But these challenges are rarely considered from a multi-lateral perspective—most analyses of regional security issues instead tend to focus on bilateral or trilateral (US-China-Country X) relationships. This pattern is particularly common in discussions of Taiwan’s security, where the dominant focus is on Cross-Strait and US-Taiwan relations to the neglect of Taiwan’s other relationships in the region.

The goals of this workshop, then, are to place Taiwan’s security challenges in a broader, regional context, to consider possible obstacles to and opportunities for greater regional cooperation on security issues, and to devise a set of recommendations for Taiwan and its partners and allies. Workshop participants will include experts on a wide array of economic, diplomatic, and security topics from Taiwan, the United States, and elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region.

Remarks are Off-the-Record.  Recording, reporting and citation of remarks is strictly prohibited.

AGENDA

Monday, March 5 - Koret-Taube Conference Center, John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Building

9:00-9:30am CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST

9:30-9:45am OPENING REMARKS
Larry Diamond, Senior Research Fellow, Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law
Karl Eikenberry, Director, U.S.-Asia Security Initiative, Asia-Pacific Research Center

9:45am – 11:30am: PANEL I.
Assessment of US Alliances and the Political and Military Situation in the Western Pacific
Chair: Tom Fingar (APARC, Stanford)
• Overview of Military Trends and US Strategy in Region. Karl Eikenberry (APARC, Stanford)
• US-Taiwan Relations. Robert Wang (Center for Strategic and International Studies)
• US-Japan Relations. TJ Pempel (UC Berkeley)
• US-Korea Relations. Kathy Stephens (APARC, Stanford)

11:30am-1:00pm LUNCH
Keynote Speaker: Robert Sutter (George Washington University) - "Will Trump administration advance support for Taiwan despite China's objections?"

1:15pm-3:00pm: PANEL II.
Trade and Economic Relations in the Western Pacific
Chair: Phillip Lipscy (APARC, Stanford)
• Regional Trade Agreements after TPP: RCEP vs TPP-11. Barbara Weisel (former Assistant US Trade Representative for SE Asia and the Pacific)
• China’s Institution-Building: OBOR, Maritime Silk Road, AIIB. Amy Searight (Center for Strategic and International Studies)
• Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy. Russell Hsiao (Global Taiwan Institute)

3:15-5:00pm: PANEL III.
Maritime Security Issues: The South and East China Seas
Chair: Karl Eikenberry (APARC, Stanford)
• Interpreting Chinese Maritime Strategy in the South China Sea, Don Emmerson (APARC, Stanford)
• China’s Maritime Militia. Andrew Erickson (Naval War College)
• Evolution of US Policy: FONOPS and Beyond. Dale Rielage (Captain, US Navy)
• Taiwan’s Role in Maritime Security Issues. Yeong-Kang Chen, (Admiral (Ret.), ROC Navy)

Tuesday, March 6 - McCaw Hall, Stanford Alumni Center

9:00-9:30am CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST

9:30-11:15am: PANEL IV.
Taiwan’s Key Asian Relations
Chair: Kharis Templeman (APARC, Stanford)
• A Taiwanese Perspective on Asian Relations. Lai I-chung (Prospect Foundation)
• NE Asia, Yeh-chung Lu (National Chengchi University)
• SE Asia, Jiann-fa Yan (Chien Hsin University of Science and Technology)

11:30-1:15pm: PANEL V.
Cross-Strait Relations
Chair: Larry Diamond
• The Domestic Politics of Security in Taiwan. Kharis Templeman (APARC, Stanford)
• Beijing’s Taiwan Policy after the 19th Party Congress. Alice Miller (Hoover Institution)
• US Role in the Trilateral Relationship. Raymond Burghardt (former chairman, American Institute in Taiwan)

1:15am-2:15pm LUNCH

March 5: Koret-Taube Conference Center, Gunn–SIEPR Building, 366 Galvez Street, Stanford, CA 94305

March 6: McCaw Hall, Frances C. Arrillaga Alumni Center, 326 Galvez St, Stanford, CA 94305

Conferences

Farmland and Fraud: Land Rents and Vote Buying in China’s Village Elections

-

While much of the existing literature examines vote buying in the context of party systems, including both competitive and hegemonic party systems, this talk, based on a study coauthored by Professor Susan Whiting, addresses vote buying in a context in which no political party effectively structures electoral competition—village elections in China. This study argues that the lure of non-competitive rents explains variation over time and space in the phenomenon of vote buying. It tests this hypothesis, derived from an in-depth case study, in a separate sample of 1200 households in 62 villages in five provinces, using villagers’ reports of vote buying in elections and survey data on land takings as an indicator of available rents. While the literature views the introduction of elections as increasing accountability of village leaders to voters, vote buying likely undermines accountability. This study suggests that the regime has tolerated vote buying as a means of identifying and coopting influential economic elites in rural communities.

susan whiting
Susan Whiting is Associate Professor of Political Science and Adjunct Associate Professor of Law and International Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle.  She specializes in Chinese and comparative politics, with particular emphasis on the political economy of development.  Her first book, Power and Wealth in Rural China: The Political Economy of Institutional Change, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2001.  She has contributed chapters and articles on property rights, fiscal reform, governance, contract enforcement and dispute resolution to numerous publications. She has done extensive research in China and has contributed to studies of governance, fiscal reform, and non-governmental organizations under the auspices of the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the Ford Foundation, respectively.  She, along with colleagues in the law school, is participating in a project on access to justice and legal aid provision in rural China.  Professor Whiting’s current research interests include property rights in land, the role of the courts in economic transition, as well as the politics of fiscal reform in transition economies. Among her courses, she teaches Comparative Politics, Chinese Politics, Qualitative Research Methods, and Law, Development, & Transition, a course offered jointly in the Department of Political Science, the Jackson School of International Studies, and the Law, Societies and Justice Program.

China Toolkit
This event is part of the 2018 Winter Colloquia; An Expanding Toolkit: The Evolution of Governance in China

China has undergone historic economic, social and cultural transformations since its Opening and Reform. Leading scholars explore expanding repertoires of control that this authoritarian regime – both central and local – are using to manage social fissures, dislocation and demands. What new strategies of governance has the Chinese state devised to manage its increasingly fractious and dynamic society? What novel mechanisms has the state innovated to pre-empt, control and de-escalate contention? China Program’s 2018 Winter Colloquia Series highlights cutting-edge research on contemporary means that various levels of the Chinese state are deploying to manage both current and potential discontent from below.

Susan Whiting <i>Associate Professor of Political Science, Adjunct Associate Professor of Law and International Studies, University of Washington</i>
Lectures
An Expanding Toolkit: The Evolution of Governance in China

Taiwan democracy project returns to APARC this fall

News Type
News
Date
Paragraphs

After twelve years at Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, the Taiwan Democracy Project will be returning to its original home at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) this fall. During its tenure at CDDRL, the Taiwan Democracy Project was led by FSI Senior Fellow Larry Diamond, who expanded the research agenda to examine the political, social and regional dynamics confronting democracy in Taiwan. A particular focus for the Program was cross-Strait relations and the increasing threats from regional neighbors. 

The Taiwan Democracy Project hosted an annual conference on Taiwan democracy at Stanford bringing together Taiwanese scholars and experts, as well a very active speaker series that ran through the course of the academic year. Several publications also emerged from the program, most recently, Taiwan's Democracy Challenged: The Chen Shui-bian Years, edited by Yun-han Chu, Larry Diamond and Kharis Templeman, which provides a sweeping account of Taiwan’s democratic performance from 2000-2008.

Other edited books of the project compared political trajectories in Taiwan and mainland China, and assessed the policy and institutional challenges confronting the maturing democracies of Taiwan and Korea. A fourth book, assessing the recently concluded presidency of Ma Ying-jeou, is now in preparation. The program also hosted a fellowship program for senior public administrators in the Taiwan government who spent an academic quarter in residence at CDDRL. An undergraduate student fellowship allowed Stanford students to spend a summer in Taiwan to examine different dimensions of its democratic transition. 

"We are very proud of what we were able to accomplish during these last twelve years," said Larry Diamond at the conclusion of CDDRL's hosting of the project. "Taiwan is one of the most vibrant and successful democracies of the Third Wave of global democratization, and what we have learned has significant implications not only for Taiwan's democratic future, but for the possible - and I believe eventual - emergence of democracy on the mainland as well. We are especially grateful to our partners at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in San Francisco, which has provided generous support while always respecting the core principle of academic freedom."

In returning to APARC, the Taiwan Democracy Project’s focus will shift to examine the challenges of democracy and security and will be renamed the Taiwan Democracy and Security Project under the leadership of Karl Eikenberry, the Oksenberg-Rohlen Fellow and the director of the U.S.-Asia Security Initiative at APARC. Kharis Templeman, who has been at CDDRL for over four years managing the project, will continue in this capacity as the project's director at APARC. 

Hero Image
taiwan02
All News button
1

Reflections on Korean Democracy

-

[[{"fid":"228881","view_mode":"crop_870xauto","fields":{"format":"crop_870xauto","field_file_image_description[und][0][value]":"","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_credit[und][0][value]":"","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","thumbnails":"crop_870xauto","alt":"","title":""},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"crop_870xauto","field_file_image_description[und][0][value]":"","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_credit[und][0][value]":"","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","thumbnails":"crop_870xauto","alt":"","title":""}},"link_text":null,"attributes":{"style":"margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 15px; padding: 0px; float: left; width: 140px; height: 187px;","class":"media-element file-crop-870xauto","data-delta":"1"}}]]Hak-kyu Sohn, a career politician and the former chairman of the South Korea's Democratic Party, will share his insights into Korean democracy based on his decades of experience in politics.

As a student activist, Sohn participated in Korea's democratization movement, which rose up against the nation's military dictatorship, and he also led labor and human rights movements. As a result of his activities under South Korea's oppresive military rule, Sohn was imprisoned. Later, he went on to be appointed minister of health and welfare, became governor of Gyonggi Province, and served four terms as a member of the National Assembly.

Sohn received a PhD in politics from University of Oxford, England, and BA in political science from Seoul National University.

Download pdf

Philippines Conference Room
Encina Hall, 3rd floor
616 Serra Street
Stanford University
Directions

Hak-kyu Sohn <i>Visiting Scholar, Shorenstein APARC; former Chairman of Democratic Party, South Korea</i>
Seminars
Korean Studies Colloquium Series

China's Hong Kong SAR at 20: Interdisciplinary Perspectives

-

RSVPs are Closed for this Event

Sponsored by:
Center of Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, Center for East Asian Studies, China Program, Shorenstein APARC

Contact: Kelley Cortright

 

Two decades after its transformation from a British colony to become China’s Special Administrative Region, Hong Kong is an arena of tensions punctuated by local-mainland discord and mutual distrust. Highlighting the HKSAR’s “One Country, Two Systems” actualization challenges, four political leaders and six academics from Hong Kong will pinpoint the dynamics shaping their city of 7.2 million amid a contest between local liberal values and its party-state sovereign’s authoritarian orthodoxy.  Anchored in multidisciplinary approaches with divergent ideo-political perspectives, this one-day seminar engages the Stanford community with Hong Kong front-liners.

Schedule:

9:00 - 9:15 am Opening Remarks:

Chaofen SUN (Professor, EALC, Stanford), Gordon CHANG (Professor, History, Stanford)

9:20 - 10:50 am Keynote Speakers:

Moderator: Ming CHAN (Distinguished Practitioner, CEAS, Stanford)

  • Martin LEE (HK Democratic Party founding chair; HK Basic Law drafter; ex-HKSAR legislator)
  • Jasper TSANG (Democratic & Progressive Alliance for a Better HK founding chair, ex- HKSAR legislature president)
  • Cheong CHING (veteran journalist)
  • Zhenmin WANG (PRC Central Gov’t Liaison Office-HK, Law Dept. Director; ex-Dean Tsing Hua University Law School)

10:50 - 11:30 am Open Discussion

11:30 am - 1:00 pm Lunch Break

1:00 - 2:30 pm Academic Panel I: "HKSAR Political Dynamics"

  • “Ideologies and Factionalism in Beijing-HK Relations: Nationalism vs Localism,” Sonny LO (Deputy Director, SPACE, HKU)
  • “Party Under-Development in Arrested Democratization: 20 years after 1997 in Hong Kong,” Ngok MA (Associate Professor, Government & Public Administration, CUHK)
  • “Stages of the Democratic Movement in Hong Kong,” Benny TAI (Associate Professor, Law, HKU)

2:30 - 4:00 pm Academic Panel II: "HKSAR Socio-Economic Dimensions"

  • “HKSAR’s Role in PRC Financial Globalization,” Vic Y. W. LI (HKEdU)
  • “Constitutive Censorship: A New Face of Newsroom Control in Hong Kong,” Allan AU (CUHK)
  • “State-Society interface--Policing HKSAR Popular Protests, 1997-2017,” Lawrence HO (HKEdU)

4:15 - 5:30 pm Closing Roundtable
Lynn WHITE (Professor, Politics & International Affairs, Princeton)
Larry DIAMOND (Senior Fellow, CDDRL, Stanford)

 

Philipppines Conference Room
 Encina Hall, 3rd Floor
 616 Serra Street
 Stanford, CA 94305

Symposiums

South Korea after Park Geun Hye's Impeachment

News Type
News
Date
Paragraphs

In October's Journal of Democracy, Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center director Gi-Wook Shin and 2016-17 Koret Fellow Rennie Moon examine Park Geun Hye's fall from power and impeachment, the challenges facing President Moon and the Democratic Party, and what it all spells for the future of Korean democracy.

Hero Image
park protests south korea
Demonstrators in Seoul call for the impeachment of President Park Geun Hye, December 24, 2016.
Flickr/Ken Shin (CC BY-NC 2.0)
All News button
1

U.S.-China Rivalry and the Origins of Taiwan's Developmental State

-

Abstract 

Scholars have credited a model of state-led capitalism called the developmental state with producing the first wave of the East Asian economic miracle. Using historical evidence based on original archival research, this talk offers a geopolitical explanation for the origins of the developmental state. In contrast to previous studies that have emphasized colonial legacies or domestic political factors, I argue that the developmental state was the legacy of the rivalry between the United States and Communist China during the Cold War. Responding to the acute tensions in Northeast Asia in the early postwar years, the United States supported emergency economic controls in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan to enforce political stability. In response to the belief that the Communist threat would persist over the long term, the U.S. strengthened its clients by laying the foundations of a capitalist, export-oriented economy under bureaucratic guidance. The result of these interventions was a distinctive model of state-directed capitalism that scholars would later characterize as a developmental state.

I verify this claim by examining the rivalry between the United States and the Chinese Communists and demonstrating that American threat perceptions caused the U.S. to promote unorthodox economic policies among its clients in Northeast Asia. In particular, I examine U.S. relations with the Chinese Nationalists on Taiwan, where American efforts to create a bulwark against Communism led to the creation of an elite economic bureaucracy for administering U.S. economic aid. In contrast, the United States decided not to create a developmental state in the Philippines because the Philippine state was not threatened by the Chinese Communists. Instead, the Philippines faced a domestic insurgency that was weaker and comparatively short-lived. As a result, the U.S. pursued a limited goal of maintaining economic stability instead of promoting rapid industrialization. These findings shed new light on the legacy of statism in American foreign economic policy and highlight the importance of geopolitics in international development.

 

Bio

James Lee

James Lee is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Politics at Princeton University. He specializes in International Relations with a focus on U.S. foreign policy in East Asia and relations across the Taiwan Strait. James also serves as the Senior Editor for Taiwan Security Research, an academic website that aggregates news and commentary on the economic and political dimensions of Taiwan's security.

 

This event is co-sponsored by the Taiwan Democracy Project in the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) and the U.S.-Asia Security Initiative in the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC), both part of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.

James Lee Ph.D. Candidate Princeton University
Lectures
Subscribe to Democracy