Introduction
Taiwan enjoyed a brief stint in the headlines late last year, with leading U.S. Republicans, the island’s independence-leaning President Tsai Ing-wen, and Beijing all signaling that a shift to a much tenser period of inter-strait relations has arrived. Of course, relations between Taipei and China began to deteriorate over a year ago, after Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) soundly beat the ruling Kuomintang (KMT), China’s preferred interlocutor, in January 2016. But things really became heated after President-elect Donald Trump broke with longstanding U.S. diplomatic protocol in December to hold a telephone call with Tsai. This prompted fears in Beijing that a pro-independence minded Taiwanese leader had emerged at the same time as a protectionist U.S. president, undermining support in both countries for the hoary one China policy which China’s ruling Communist party still clings to as a symbol of its nationalist credentials.
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