From China Times, via Brookings Institution website:
Taiwan’s democratic system exhibits multiple faces at the same time. Positive and negative trends coexist simultaneously. Both optimism and pessimism are warranted. Dark clouds possess silver linings”but they are still dark clouds. Yet if one asks whether democracy has made Taiwan more stable, the answer is unequivocally yes. The message for Taiwan’s policy makers”and China should take note”is that they would do well to listen to the centrists tendencies of the Taiwan people, who see no contradiction between establishing their identity and recognizing that their prosperity cannot ignore China as a major driver in the world economy. [Full Text]
Carlos Pascual is vice president and director of the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution. Richard C. Bush III is director of the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies.
