Protests, Pandemic, and Security Predicaments : Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, and the US in the 2020s

This book examines how Asian countries have responded to urgent challenges against a backdrop of climactic political developments, as well as the effects of issue linkage in policy making. Chapters are arranged according to localities but interlinked through their thematic and critical analyses. The section on Hong Kong focuses on the theme of protests, highlighting its intersection with identity and generational shifts in addition to legal, political and economic changes before and after the adoption of Hong Kong National Security Law. The section examining Taiwan's policies discusses electoral calculations, identity reconstruction, cross-Strait stalemate and alliance maneuvers within USA-China-Taiwan triangular international relations, providing an overview of its domestic and external policies. Through their analysis, the authors here determine that China has emphasized the prerogatives of history, culture and territorial sovereignty in its dealings with the Hong Kong protests and Taiwan, and that cross-Strait analysis must be deliberated and ultimately determined within the USA-China-Taiwan triangular framework. In the final section, authors examine the USA's role and policy in dealing with both sides of the Taiwan Strait. Hegemonic power transition has been a primary concern in both countries with the USA's hegemonic status facing daunting challenges from China, increasingly perceived as an ascending revisionist power waiting to overtake the USA in the future.

1 Introduction.- Part I: Hong Kong: Waves of Protests for Rights.- 2 Contesting Identities: Hong Kong Protest, Taiwan's Concerns, and China's Challenges.- 3 The New National Security Laws and Foreign Elements in Hong Kong.- Part II: Taiwan: Riding the Anti-China Tide.- 4 Threat Perception and Taiwan's 2020 Presidential Election.- 5 Taiwan Can Help: Political Impacts and Lessons Learned from Taiwan's Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic.- 6 Taiwan's Public Opinion, Party Politics, and International Environment in the Making of Taiwan's Mainland China Policy.- 7 Caught between the US and the PRC: Taiwan in an Asymmetrical Strategic Triangle.- Part III: China: Coping with the Turbulent Currents of Challenges.- 8 The Pandemic Further Sickens US-China Relations.- 9 China's Policy toward Taiwan in the Xi Era.- 10 A Pyrrhic Victory? The Political Economy of US-China Competition.- 11 Xi Jinping's Shift to Coercive Strategy for National Reunification.- Part IV: The US: Breaking the Grip of theRip for Hegemonic Status.- 12. Competitions and Coalitions: An Emerging U.S. Domestic Consensus and the Taiwan Strait Tensions since 2019.- 13 America's Hardening Strategy toward China: Domestic politics, US Resolve and Their Implications for China, Taiwan, and the Region.

Wei-chin Lee is Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Wake Forest University, USA.