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WORK TITLE: China and Taiwan
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PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY:
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https://www.smith.edu/academics/faculty/steven-goldstein * https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-goldstein-097a3333
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LOC not working, used worldcat for bib
LC control no.: n 88651663
Personal name heading:
Goldstein, Steven M.
Variant(s): Goldstein, Stephen M.
Special note: Variant "Stephen" in hdg. on FTaSU-L rept. not explained.
Found in: nuc87-108217: His Attorney's fees under 42 U.S.C. ... 1980
(hdg. on FTaSU-L rept.: Goldstein, Stephen M.; usage:
Steven M. Goldstein)
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PERSONAL
Male.
EDUCATION:Tufts College, B.A., Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, M.A.; Columbia University, Ph.D.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Smith College, Sophia Smith Professor of Government, 1968-2016, Sophia Smith Emeritus Professor of Government, 2016—; Naval War College, Van Beuren Chair Distinguished Visiting Professor, 2012; visiting faculty member at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and Columbia University; Harvard University, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Taiwan Studies Workshop, director.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Steven M. Goldstein is Sophia Smith Emeritus Professor of Government at Smith College, where he taught from 1968 to 2016. He also serves as director of the Taiwan Studies Workshop, part of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University. His research interests include Chinese domestic and foreign policy, mainland China-Taiwan relations, and United States-Taiwan relations. He has written extensively on Chinese politics and Sino-American relations. Previously, Goldstein was a visiting faculty member at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and Columbia University. In 2012 he was Van Beuren Chair Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Naval War College. Goldstein holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University.
Taiwan in the Twentieth Century and Presidential Politics in Taiwan
In 2001 Goldstein partnered with coeditor Richard Louis Edmonds to publish Taiwan in the Twentieth Century: A Retrospective View, part of the China Quarterly Special Issues. The book collects essays from experts on Taiwan who analyze political and governmental changes on the island in the twentieth century. Authors discuss formation of today’s Taiwan, the Japanese colonial era, social and political issues that arose, and twenty-first century challenges.
Along with Julian Chang, executive director of Asia programs at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Goldstein published Presidential Politics in Taiwan: The Administration of Chen Shui-Bian in 2008. The book chronicles the embattled administration of Taiwan’s president Chen Shui-bian amid charges of corruption and calls for his resignation. During the Democratic Progressive Party’s 12th Congress, DPP chairman Yu Shyi-kun offered an unprecedented apology for the previous administration’s failure to serve the people of Taiwan. Under Chen and the policies he instituted, the party suffered a crisis of self-confidence and pessimism and experienced numerous challenges. In each chapter, Goldstein addresses an issue of the Chen administration, such as domestic political dynamics, sociopolitical issues, foreign policy, and national security.
Economic Reform and Cross-Strait Relations
In 2009 Goldstein and Chang again collaborated on Economic Reform and Cross-Strait Relations: Taiwan and China in the WTO. This anthology of essays discusses the political and economic impact of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. The authors analyze the state of cross-Strait relations before joining the WTO and discuss the concessions made by both sides in their accession agreements, the manner in which the Taiwan economy was reformed to achieve compliance, the restrictive trade regime created to manage mainland trade, the effect of this regime on the Taiwan economy in Asia, and interactions between China and Taiwan in the WTO. Other essays address the impact of membership on four sectors of the economy: finance, agriculture, electronics, and automobiles.
Writing in China Journal Tse-Kang Leng commented: “The academic background of most of the authors means that the analyses of the impacts of WTO accession on Taiwan are more thorough than those of the impacts on China. This weakness reduces the effect of the book’s optimism. Because of the uniqueness of cross-Strait relations, the function of the trade regime must be balanced by the political will to promote the bilateral relationship.”
China and Taiwan
Goldstein next published the 2015 China and Taiwan, in which he discusses relations between the two countries ever since the island seceded from the Communist mainland more than sixty years ago. Described as hostile and wary, relations may have seemed to soften lately, yet underlying tensions remain. While Taiwan is aided by the United States, tensions could flare up and become dangerous. Goldstein offers historical background and discusses economic, political, and security issues.
Although the book does not offer anything new to subject specialists, “this systematic historical account provides indispensable background for anybody who wishes to fully understand the contemporary dynamics,” according to C. Chen in Choice. Praising the book, Jean-Pierre Cabestan wrote on the China Perspectives Web site: “It uses newly declassified materials that underscore the complexity of the issue as well as the ambiguities attached to the positions of each stakeholder, namely China, Taiwan, and the United States.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
China Journal, July 2009, Tse-Kang Leng, review of Economic Reform and Cross-Strait Relations: Taiwan and China in the WTO, pp. 210-212.
Choice, April, 2016, C. Chen, review of China and Taiwan, p. 1235.
ONLINE
China Perspectives, https://chinaperspectives.revues.org/ (April 27, 2017; Issue 2, 2016), review of China and Taiwan.
Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies Web site, http://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/ (April 27, 2017), author faculty profile.
Smith College Web site, http://www.smith.edu/ (April 27, 2017), author faculty profile.
Stephen Goldstein Stephen Goldstein
Sophia Smith Professor of Government, Smith College
sgoldstein@fas.harvard.edu
https://www.smith.edu/government/faculty_goldstein.php
Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies | CGIS South Building | 1730 Cambridge Street | Cambridge MA 02138
English
Research interests: Chinese domestic and foreign policy, mainland China-Taiwan relations and US-Taiwan relations.
Chinese Name: 戈迪温
Steven M. Goldstein
Sophia Smith Professor Emeritus of Government
Steven Goldstein
Contact & Office Hours
sgoldste@smith.edu
Education
Ph.D., Columbia University
M.A., Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
B.A., Tufts College
Biography
Steven M. Goldstein taught in the Smith College Department of Government from 1968 to 2016. He is now the director of the Taiwan Studies Workshop and associate at the Fairbank Center at Harvard University. He has been a visiting faculty member at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Columbia University, and the Naval War College. Goldstein's research has been focused on issues of Chinese domestic and foreign policy as well as cross-strait relations. His most recent publication is China and Taiwan (Polity Press, 2015).
Author Information
Steven Goldstein is Sophia Smith Professor of Government at Smith College. He is also the director of the Taiwan Studies Workshop at Harvard University and has been a visiting faculty member at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and Columbia University. In the spring of 2012 he was Van Beuren Chair Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Naval War College.
Goldstein, Steven M.: China and Taiwan
C. Chen
53.8 (Apr. 2016): p1235.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association CHOICE
http://www.ala.org/acrl/choice/about
Goldstein, Steven M. China and Taiwan. Polity, 2015. 228p bibl index afp ISBN 9780745659992 cloth, $64.95; ISBN 9780745660004 pbk, $22.95
(cc) 53-3712
DS740
2015-10144 CIP
This is a judicious and lucidly written book covering the extremely important yet fragile relationship between China and Taiwan from a long-term historical perspective. Goldstein (Smith College) is an accomplished scholar of politics in China and Taiwan, and therefore is eminently well-positioned to offer this comprehensive account of the evolving cross-strait relations over centuries and the crucial role of the US in this ongoing saga. Much of the history presented here is not new to area specialists; but this systematic historical account provides indispensable background for anybody who wishes to fully understand the contemporary dynamics. Also important, this book situates the relationship between China and Taiwan within the changing international environment, where US interests and commitments formed in the context of the Cold War nevertheless continue to shape cross-strait ties and have the potential of dragging the two most important international players today--the US and China--into a military conflict over Taiwan. This book is a highly accessible must-read for any students, scholars, and policy makers who want to decipher the precarious peace across the Taiwan Strait. Summing Up: *** Highly recommended. All readership levels.--C. Chen, University at Albany, SUNY
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Chen, C. "Goldstein, Steven M.: China and Taiwan." CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, Apr. 2016, p. 1235. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA449661843&it=r&asid=997d6f1b33a9034cb2d06c6a3e1c3c60. Accessed 12 Mar. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A449661843
China Journal. Jul2009, Issue 62, p210-212. 3p.
Tse-Kang Leng1
Economic Reform and Cross-Strait Relations: Taiwan and China in the WTO,
edited by Julian Chang and Steven M. Goldstein. Singapore: World Scientific,
2007. xiv + 377 pp. US$75.00 (hardcover).
This book provides a relatively optimistic viewpoint of WTO impacts on crossStrait
relations. Its main theme is that the WTO framework serves as a unique
platform and opportunity for both Taiwan and China to solve their domestic
problems and bilateral disputes. The new mechanism, through multilateral and
bilateral means, will build mutual trust in the economic realm, laying a foundation
for more comprehensive cooperation across the Taiwan Strait.
The editors’ introductory chapter outlines the major dimensions of cross-Strait
relations: the intimate trade linkage, the emergence of a trade regime, and the coexistence
of political competition and economic cooperation. Chang and
Goldstein argue that the dual accessions of Taiwan and China to the WTO present
a paradox while holding to the fundamental policies, and that the two states are
creating a close and mutually-beneficial relationship. Chapter 2, by Tain-Jy Chen,
uses case studies to illustrate the domestic impact of WTO accession. Taiwan’s
industrial sectors are able to make some inevitable adjustments to meet WTO
accession demands, and perceived fears of WTO trade liberalization may be
cushioned by a variety of technical measures by the Chinese government,
although both Taiwan and China have followed a similar accession process. In
Chapter 3, Guang-Hwa Yang notes that, despite expectations in Taiwan, China
has no intention of interacting with Taiwan under the WTO framework. However,
economic and trade liberalization driven by China’s WTO membership will
narrow the political differences between the two sides of the Strait.
Chapter 4 by Chi Schive demonstrates that Taiwan has much more to do to
open up to the PRC under the WTO framework. Without effective firewalls, the
REVIEWS 211
inflow of managerial and technical professionals from China would have a lasting
impact on Taiwan’s employment structure. Tables and statistics show that
Taiwan’s government sees outward investment to the PRC as highly sensitive.
The banning of investment in most financial sectors is for the sake of stability, not
aimed specially at the mainland. Chapter 5, by Peter Drysdale and Xinpeng Xu,
uses trade efficiency and intensity to examine the benefits of WTO accession for
both sides, and show that restrictions on cross-Strait trade, especially on imports
from China, have prevented Taiwan from specializing fully in sectors in which it
has a comparative advantage. This chapter concludes that Taiwan should include
China in its strategic foreign economic policies within the East Asian region.
Chapter 6 by Joseph Fewsmith considers that the centripetal forces of
economic ties are posed against the centrifugal pulls of identity and politics, so
WTO accession seems in fact to have increased rather than decreased Taiwan’s
economic prosperity, while at the same time benefiting China. Fewsmith contends
that WTO accession has been a “boon” to both Taiwan and China, and believes
that an alternative approach will be useful to the antagonists when political
tensions are confined within an acceptable range. In Chapter 7, Jih-chu Lee
indicates that collaboration between the two governments under the WTO
framework may expand to areas such as stabilizing the exchange rate, controlling
financial crises, combating financial fraud and so on. Entry to the WTO will also
enhance the stability of each side’s financial system by sharing experience of
financial reforms, cooperating on a defense mechanism and establishing a joint
strategic alliance. This chapter concludes with a suggestion that financial
cooperation between Taiwan and China should be extended to other areas.
Chapter 8, by Robert Ash, analyzes the impact of the WTO on the agricultural
sectors on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. Besides the central government’s
efforts, the author also notes the regional impact on economic and social
development. Planners in both Taipei and Beijing should try to anticipate, through
their respective policies, the impact on the farm sectors after WTO accession,
although the data are not yet conclusive. Charles Trappey argues in Chapter 9 that
Taiwan, unlike China, has too many groups working against each other. Trappey
believes that, for both Taiwan and China, over time progress under the WTO will
achieve a balance between influential groups, and this will be beneficial to the
electronics industries on both sides. He believes that the WTO’s Information
Technology Agreement is creating a global ICT market in which Taiwan and
China can offer their own comparative advantages. Chapter 10, by Chwo-Ming
Joseph Yu, indicates that automakers on both sides of the Taiwan Strait have
handled the WTO impacts well. Since the major automakers in Taiwan and China
have formed joint ventures with foreign companies, the industries in Taiwan and
China have been gradually integrated into the global automobile industry. If
Taiwan and China can find a solution to their problems under the WTO
framework, more cross-Strait cooperation between firms in the automobile
industry can be expected.
212 THE CHINA JOURNAL, No. 62
Contributors to this book are scholars prominent in the fields of economic
development and political economy. Arguments and topics included are
comprehensive and timely. It is obvious that the editors have endeavored to
integrate various specialties and styles, and they have done a good job. The
book’s chapters demonstrate an excellent combination of academic innovation
and practical experience; some authors have now been recruited into the Ma
administration in Taiwan to shoulder substantial responsibilities on cross-Strait
economic affairs. This practical dimension strengthens the book and even makes
it an excellent policy roadmap. Actual cases are introduced in the book to link
more abstract concepts with substantial events.
However, the academic background of most of the authors means that the
analyses of the impacts of WTO accession on Taiwan are more thorough than
those of the impacts on China. This weakness reduces the effect of the book’s
optimism. Because of the uniqueness of cross-Strait relations, the function of the
trade regime must be balanced by the political will to promote the bilateral
relationship. There is indeed an argument that potential bilateral free trade
agreements between Taiwan and China may promote cooperation better than a
multilateral platform such as the WTO. One of the major non-economic functions
of the WTO is to provide a mutual learning process for both Taiwan and China,
but the organization alone cannot solve the typical dilemma of “spill-over” effects
from low politics to high politics. In short, the book treats each topic separately
and provides individual solutions on each aspect but, given the political nature of
cross-Strait relations, a concluding chapter to discuss the integrated theoretical
implications is necessary. It would also have been helpful had the editors added a
list of contributors and their backgrounds.
All in all, this well-written book is useful for both concerned scholars and
policy-makers. Its comprehensiveness provides guidelines for further enquiry on
economic relationships across the Taiwan Strait.
Tse-Kang Leng
National Chengchi University, Taipei
Book reviews
Steven M. Goldstein, China and Taiwan,
Cambridge, UK, and Malden, MA, Polity Press, 2015, 228 pp.
Jean-Pierre Cabestan
p. 70-71
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1This is a very useful overview of both the history and the current state of China-Taiwan relations. The 16th title of a new collection called “China Today,” this short volume is mainly aimed at informing the general public interested in the most striking features of what is now the second world economy and power. However, written by a recognised expert of the relations across the Taiwan Strait, it constitutes both a comprehensive and highly reliable exposé of Taiwan’s past, its unique trajectory, and its closer but still difficult relationship with China. Moreover, it uses newly declassified materials that underscore the complexity of the issue as well as the ambiguities attached to the positions of each stakeholder, namely China, Taiwan, and the United States. Consequently, students of Chinese affairs interested in better comprehending cross-Strait relations and Taiwan’s future are strongly advised to read this book.
2Organised in eight brief chapters, Steven Goldstein’s work first reminds the reader about Taiwan’s past, its late inclusion in the Manchu Empire (1683), the 50-year Japanese colonisation (1895-1945), and more importantly, what the United States (and Japan) still consider its “unsettled status” in spite of its claimed return to the Republic of China (ROC) in 1945. It then adroitly summarises “cross-Strait politics without relations” during the Cold War and what has changed and not changed in Washington’s stance on Taiwan since Nixon’s trip in 1972. Similarly, it highlights the ambiguities of the Sino-US normalisation in 1979 and the 1982 third communiqué (on the reduction of US arms sales to Taiwan), as well as the importance of the April 1979 Taiwan Relations Act and the refusal of all US governments, including the Carter administration, for that matter (p. 66), to endorse the idea that Taiwan is part of the People’s Republic of China.
3While for obvious reasons Washington looms large in this book, China and Taiwan also gives much space to Taiwanese politics. It rightly underscores what it calls “the challenges of a democratic Taiwan,” the impact of democratisation, and the quest for a better statehood both on cross-Strait relations (the missile crisis) and Taipei-Washington relations (a more robust security engagement and military cooperation). Likewise, the Chen Shui-bian (and Democratic Progressive Party, DPP) presidency (2000-2008) is clearly analysed, contrasting the first two years of relative moderation with the next six years of Taiwanese identity “assertiveness” (my own wording) but also growing rapprochement between the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Entitled “Satisfying Washington and Beijing,” the chapter devoted to the Ma Ying-jeou presidency shows both the achievements and the limits of the rapprochement initiated by the KMT and supported by most Taiwanese, at least until 2014 and the Sunflower Movement. This chapter also demonstrates that China won’t be happy as long as Taiwan – one of its top “core interests” – capitulates and embraces political negotiations leading to reunification. As a result, the US cannot extricate itself from the key role it plays in this dispute.
4The two final chapters present the two well-known paradoxical pillars of the relationship across the Taiwan Strait: on the one hand, a deepening but highly asymmetrical economic interdependence, and on the other hand, a lingering and unsolvable security tension that has forced the US to adopt a “dual deterrence” strategy (to deter a Chinese unprovoked attack as well as a Taiwanese declaration of independence).
5There are probably choices and developments in Goldstein’s book that other scholars studying cross-Strait relations may object to. For instance, he does not adequately emphasise the close connection between US-China normalisation and Deng Xiaoping’s adoption of a policy of “peaceful reunification” towards Taiwan, as opposed to “peaceful liberation,” a formula still used by Hua Guofeng in late 1978 (p. 53). This linkage is important because it will later justify the decision made by the Clinton administration to disregard (or de facto freeze) the application of the 1982 third US-China communiqué as Beijing decides to remilitarise the Taiwan Strait. Another criticism can be made regarding Lee Teng-hui’s decision in 1999 to qualify cross-Strait relations as state-to-state relations: it was more the result of talks held by the Strait Exchange Foundation (SEF) and the Association for the Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) in Shanghai in 1998 than the division between the Clinton administration and Congress (p. 95) that explained Lee’s initiative: he did not want to open “political talks” with China, knowing too well where it might lead.
1 Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the United States of America website, “Taiwan Affairs (...)
6One can also question whether the Chen years were “a period of high danger” (the title of Chapter 5). Goldstein tends to dismiss Chen’s caution and Beijing’s unaccommodating position in the first two years of his presidency, the latter being the main reason for Chen’s change of mind and strategy in summer 2002. More generally, looking back at these years as another DPP administration starts in 2016 under the presidency of Tsai Ing-wen, one wonders what Chen tried and managed to achieve. In 2006 he terminated the National Unification Council, an institution established before Taiwan’s democratisation and the political legitimacy of which was questionable, but never actually challenged the “one China nature” of the Republic of China’s Constitution (as mentioned on p. 102). In addition, regarding the so-called “92 Consensus,” the author does not adopt enough critical distance from this concept, coined by the KMT’s Su Chi in 2000: in 1992, the SEF and the ARATS reached an ambiguous compromise rather than a “consensus” regarding “one China” (p. 103), and as Tsai steps in as the new ROC president, this problem remains unsolved. Finally, while China and Taiwan does a good job tracing the initial statement in 2005 of Hu Jintao’s slightly more flexible policy towards the island, it does not mention the important change adopted by the CCP in October 2007, which elevated the priority of the “peaceful development” of cross-Strait relations (as opposed to “peaceful reunification”), an idea that goes back to the first point of Beijing’s 17 May 2004 seven-point statement1 and means that Beijing can accept the status quo for the time being. It is a policy priority that has not been questioned by Xi Jinping, even if the new Chinese president has demonstrated more impatience regarding leaving the issue unresolved for future generations.
7China and Taiwan closes just before the November 2015 Xi-Ma summit in Singapore and Taiwan’s January 2016 presidential and legislative elections. However, it includes all the ingredients that observers need to be aware of in order to understand the current state and uncertain future of cross-Strait relations. A tour de force, as we say in English… and in French.
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Notes
1 Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the United States of America website, “Taiwan Affairs Office Issues Statement on Current Cross-Straits Relations,” 17 May 2004, www.china-embassy.org/eng/zt/twwt/t111117.htm (accessed on 27 April 2016).
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References
Electronic reference
Jean-Pierre Cabestan, « Steven M. Goldstein, China and Taiwan, », China Perspectives [Online], 2016/2 | 2016, Online since 01 June 2016, connection on 12 March 2017. URL : http://chinaperspectives.revues.org/6997