The Bush administration's Asian-Pacific policies and their impacts on U.S.-China- Taiwan relations

Abstract

This paper explores the Bush administration's Asian-Pacific policies and their impacts on U.S.-China-Taiwan relations. It will examine the adjustments and changes of U.S. Asian-Pacific policies after George W. Bush was inaugurated as the President of the United States from economic, diplomatic, military, technological and strategic perspectives. Militarily speaking, the Bush administration's Asian-Pacific security policies in the past one and half years have successfully placed China in a disadvantageous position. Technologically speaking, China may choose not to engage itself in an arms race with the United States, but Beijing cannot but engage itself in an information race with Washington. Economically speaking, China's rising economic strength and its promotion of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (FTA) will sooner or later force Washington to take the formation of a U.S.-led regional FTA into serious consideration. Diplomatically speaking, the Bush administration's support of Taiwan's bid for a better status in the international community will also inevitably get Washington in a cross-strait diplomatic war. Strategically speaking, the Bush administratien's high-profile Asian-Pacific policies have enabled Washington to replace "strategic ambiguity" with "strategic clarity" toward both sides of Taiwan Strait. While the room for Beijing's bellicose elements to provoke and the room for Taipei's independence advocates to maneuver are getting smaller, Washington has left quite a large room for itself to maneuver by playing Taiwan-China card when it deems appropriate or necessary.