Taiwan's Economic and Diplomatic Challenges and Opportunities

This book offers a diverse set of perspectives on the current state of Taiwan’s economy and international relations, equally considering the challenges and opportunities that could forge Taiwan’s future.

Featuring a range of interdisciplinary approaches, this edited volume has been written by some of the leading scholars on Taiwan’s economy and international relations, as well as emerging scholars and writers with practical diplomatic, political, and civil society experience. Contributors cover themes from political economy and international relations to gender studies and civil society-led LGBT diplomacy. Readers will benefit from chapters outlining both the historical overview of Taiwan’s development and more recent developments, with several chapters offering focused case studies into Taiwan’s economy and international space. A balanced set of conclusions are reached, affording scope for both optimism and pessimism about Taiwan’s prospects.

Taiwan's Economic and Diplomatic Challenges and Opportunities will appeal to students and scholars of international relations, economics, and Taiwan studies.

Mariah Thornton is an enthusiastic researcher of Chinese politics with an undergraduate degree in Chinese Studies from the University of Oxford and an MSc in the Politics of China from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. From 2012 to 2013 she completed a year abroad at Peking University and later received the Huayu Scholarship from the Taiwan Ministry of Education to undergo intensive study of Mandarin at National Taiwan Normal University from 2015 to 2016. Mariah Thornton worked as a press and communications adviser at the Taipei Representative Office in the United Kingdom under Representative and former Foreign Minister David Y.L. Lin from 2018 to 2020.

Robert Ash (Bob Ash) is an Emeritus Professor at SOAS University of London, and Founder and Professorial Research Associate of the Centre of Taiwan Studies at SOAS. Before his retirement in 2020 he was Professor of Economics with reference to China and Taiwan, and Professorial Fellow of the SOAS China Institute. From 1986 to 1995 he was Head of the Contemporary China Institute at SOAS; during 1997・2001 he was Director of the EU-China Academic Network. From 1999 to 2013 Bob Ash was Director of the SOAS Taiwan Studies Programme and its Centre of Taiwan Studies. In 2012 he received the Friendship Medal of Diplomacy from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the ROC Government in recognition of his efforts on behalf of Taiwan Studies in the UK and elsewhere in Europe. Bob Ash has held visiting research and teaching positions at universities in Australia, Hong Kong, France, and Italy. He has been researching China for more than 40 years and has written or edited 15 books, mainly on development issues relating to China, but also on issues relating to Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Dafydd Fell is the Reader in Comparative Politics with special reference to Taiwan at the Department of Politics and International Studies of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. He is also the Director of the SOAS Centre of Taiwan Studies. In 2004 he helped establish the European Association of Taiwan Studies. He has published numerous articles on political parties and electioneering in Taiwan. His first book was Party Politics in Taiwan (2005), which analysed party change in the first 15 years of multi-party competition. His second book was Government and Politics in Taiwan (2011) and the second edition was published in early 2018. He co-edited Migration to and from Taiwan (2013) and his next edited volume, Social Movements in Taiwan, under Ma Ying-jeou was published in 2017. His most recent co-edited book was Taiwan Studies Revisited, published in 2019. He is also the book series editor for the Routledge Research on Taiwan Series.