Author Description

The relationship between the United States and China is one of the most important issues in the twenty-first century, and is, ultimately, hostage to conditions across the Taiwan Strait. This book is the first to attempt to trace the historical origin of what is known as the 'Taiwan issue' in US-China relations from a constructivist perspective, based on detailed archival research. The analysis used supplements the mainstream rationalist approach by developing a new theoretical perspective on US Taiwan policy that incorporates constructivism's emphasis on identity, norms and discourse analysis. Whilst the potential utility of such an approach has been gestured towards in the past, scholars have never previously developed or elaborated upon it to any significant extent. Here, this approach is used to re-examine the Truman administration's decision to protect Taiwan by military means following the outbreak of the Korean War, and to investigate how the 'one China' policy was established in relation to the process of rapprochement during President Nixon's first term in office. The book also considers the contemporary challenges posed to the 'one China' policy by the increased importance of promoting human rights and democracy in US foreign policy, arguing that the current US China policy is guided by a now strategy based on 'engagement plus hedging'. This book will appeal to students of US foreign policy, discourse analysis, Asian security, international security and IR theory in general.