"Japan, Taiwan And The “One China” Framework After 50 Years" - By CWP Alum Adam P. Liff
This study analyses the “one China” framework's significance for Japan–Taiwan relations since Tokyo switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1972. Drawing on Chinese-, Japanese- and English-language sources, it examines developments since the breakthrough Japan–PRC normalization communiqué and the “Japan formula,” which enabled Tokyo to normalize relations – six years before Washington – without recognizing Beijing's claim of sovereignty over Taiwan, and while maintaining robust, if unofficial, ties with Taipei thenceforth. Highlighting distinctions between Beijing's self-asserted “one-China principle” and Japan's ambiguous official position and subsequent effective policies, it assesses incremental but practically significant evolutions of Japan–Taiwan relations over the past half-century. In the 21st century, the trend towards incrementally closer ties has proven strikingly resilient to political transitions in Japan and Taiwan, China's growing power, pushback from Beijing and worsening cross-Strait frictions. Beyond Japan–Taiwan relations and theoretical debates on “one China,” this article's findings carry significant implications for Taiwan's international space, cross-Strait dynamics and China–Japan–United States relations.
摘要
本研究旨在分析「一个中国」框架自 1972 年日中建交以来对日台关係产生的实质意义与影响。透过区隔北京主张的「一个中国原则」与日本官方对此模糊的立场与继之出台的政策，本文检视了过去半世纪以来，日台关係渐进但实质的演变。21 世纪以降，日台关係历经日台的政治转型、中国实力的增强、以及愈发恶化的两岸关係仍变得日益紧密，展现了此一关系的韧性。
Professor Adam P. Liff is Associate Professor of East Asian International Relations at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global & International Studies (EALC Department), and Director of its 21st Century Japan Politics and Society Initiative ("21JPSI"). Beyond IU, he is a Nonresident Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution, as well as an Associate-in-Research at Harvard University's Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies and Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies.
Liff's areas of specialty are international relations, security studies, and East Asian politics—with a particular focus on contemporary security affairs in the Asia-Pacific region. His main research interests include the foreign relations of Japan and China; U.S. Asia-Pacific strategy; the U.S.-Japan alliance, and the rise of China and its impact on its region and the world.
Liff's academic scholarship has been published in Asia Policy, Asian Survey, International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, International Security, Japanese Journal of Political Science, Journal of Contemporary China, Japanese Studies, Journal of Strategic Studies, Security Studies, Texas National Security Review, The China Quarterly, and The Washington Quarterly. His previous research affiliations include the Harvard Kennedy School of Government's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, the Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program, the University of Virginia's Miller Center, the University of Tokyo’s Institute of Social Science, Peking University's School of International Studies, the Stanford Center at PKU, the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Law and Politics, the Wilson Center, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
Liff holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Politics from Princeton University, and a B.A. from Stanford University.
Photo Credit: By Syced - Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=98486238
