National Identity and the Sustainability of Ma Ying-Jeou's Foreign Policy

Abstract

The cross-strait relations and foreign policies of the Republic of China (Taiwan) have been an issue of persistent contention in Taiwanese domestic electoral politics over the last twenty years. Contestation over narratives of national identity has become especially prominent since democratisation began in the 1990s. Ma Ying-jeou’s substantial 2008 and 2012 presidential election victories, where a more conciliatory policy towards cross-strait relations was a feature, and a more pragmatic, free-trade oriented economic policy, suggest that the politics of identity may no longer be as important in Taiwan as appeared to be the case when the first Taiwan-born president, Lee Teng-hui, took office in 1988. While cross-strait economic and elite ties have as expected grown closer under Ma’s watch, research surveys and opinion polls have not found a steady growth of affection for the PRC in Taiwan, and support for both the status quo and proindependence positions has actually strengthened. This raises the question of whether Ma’s more ‘pragmatic’ foreign policy will be sustainable going forward. The “Taiwanisation” of the Taiwanese electorate continues to strengthen, and there are still voices cautious of deep economic interdependence with China in Taiwan. Ma’s emphasis on the “92 consensus” in political rhetoric, the pursuit of the “diplomatic truce,” and the signing of Economic Cooperation Free-trade Agreement (ECFA) have been criticised by some in Taiwan as facilitating the overdependence of Taiwan on China economically and politically, which may ultimately lead to Taiwan’s unification with PRC-China. Given this seeming contradiction, this thesis will examine the sustainability of Ma Ying-jeou’s policy given the continuing evolution of post-democracy Taiwanese identity. It will analyse the dramatic changes in Taiwanese national identity discourses since democratization and will also look at how foreign policy behaviour continues to be shaped by domestic and identity factors, using economic and political controversies of the first five years of the Ma Ying-jeou’s administration as examples.