Strait defiance

The Trouble with Taiwan: History, the United States and a Rising China
Kerry Brown and Kalley Wu Tzu Hui
Zed Books: 2019
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One of the biggest myths in contemporary international relations is the often repeated and widely accepted mantra of the Chinese government that Taiwan is part of China. It is taught in Chinese schools as if it were fact, and millions, indeed billions, of foreigners accept the assertion without question. Dissenting views within China are suppressed, and those in Taiwan who suggest otherwise are demonised by China as ‘splittists’. Hand in hand with this is the claim that ‘reunification’ is only a matter of time.

But today, reunification is further away than ever. The Trouble with Taiwan helps explain why. Kerry Brown and Kalley Wu Tzu Hui claim only to be updating and disseminating discussion of some key issues, not to be engaging in original scholarship. But the very fact that one of the key sites on social media for discussion of books about Taiwan is called Books about Nerdiness, without any sense of irony, shows how little published work there is in English about Taiwan generally, despite its history and its contribution to culture, not to mention its place in international relations. For this reason alone, this book is welcome.

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