Taiwan: Crisis Deferred, But Maybe Not For Long

Taiwan's elections on January 14, which for the first time combined polls for the presidency and the legislature, displayed further positive evolution in Taiwan's now well-established democracy. The results also precluded an immediate disruption in relations between Taiwan and the PRC, which is good news in Washington. Denny Roy, Senior Fellow at the East-West Center, discusses the recent Taiwan elections, saying, "the essential question for Taiwan is how to retain its political autonomy when it is economically integrating with a China that has huge and growing relative economic and military power; when China's government remains committed to forcible unification as a matter of regime survival; and when the staying power of the American protectorate is in doubt."

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