Abstract
Many developing countries have undergone identity crises, but the crisis that has emerged in Taiwan in recent years is somewhat different, in that it has its roots in a gap between political (rather than economic) expectations and the reality of the ROC government’s sovereignty. This gap involves neither nationalism nor ethnic differences as seen in other countries. It is a by-product of the opening of exchanges with mainland China and the Peking (Beijing) regime’s insistence on the ”one China” principle.