Summary
American foreign policy in Asia has long been preoccupied with mainland China. But the end of the Cold War and the 1989 Tiananmen massacre have forced the U.S. to think in new ways about the “other” Chinese in Hong Kong and Taiwan. No other study so clearly focuses American thinking on relations with Hong Kong and Taiwan. Surveying post-1945 U.S. ties with both areas in the context of earlier historical interaction, Tucker explores commerce and trade, military imperatives and political priorities, as well as cultural controversies over Westernization and tradition, bringing to light trends and events in the first comprehensive analysis of these relationships. Tucker reexamines Washington’s continual efforts to sustain its uncertain friends through economic assistance and military protection in spite of their sometimes divergent goals and antagonistic policies. The U.S. was not above using its Asian clients to further selfish national interests or cold war strategies but in its dealings with the Nationalist Chinese frequently found itself manipulated rather than dominant. In Hong Kong, Tucker probes the changing dimensions of American support for British control of its Crown Colony, the pivotal role of the United States in Hong Kong’s burgeoning economy, and Washington’s use of Hong Kong as a strategic foothold and a base for espionage. In her final chapters, Tucker vividly outlines the economic and political challenges posed by the emergence of a Greater China. She urges Washington to focus on the region with new intensity and offers balanced guidelines for immediate and future American policy. Scholars and policy makers interested in the economic “miracle” of Taiwan and Hong Kong, in the rise of the Asian-Pacific community, and in Washington’s role in shaping it, will welcome her original research and insights.