DAVID AND GOLIATH - A COMPARISON OF REUNIFICATION POLICIES BETWEEN MAINLAND CHINA AND TAIWAN

German reunification has demonstrated that a nation partitioned artificially with the involvement of the great powers can be reunited through a combination of internal preparations, external accommodations, interregional amalgamation, and an intervening variable where the side with more resources has a system that is appealing to both sides. But in China, the situation is a bit different. Nationalism is not particularly appealing to the people of Taiwan due to the fact that they have virtually nothing to gain through political integration with the mainland, especially now that economic cooperation and integration seem likely without any political assistance. While the government of the Republic of China (ROC) has renounced its claim to represent the whole of China, Peking (Beijing) insists that the ROC ended in 1949, when the Communists took power and the People's Republic of China (PRC) became the sole sovereign government of the country. In comparison to Peking's single-minded and coherent reunification policy, Taiwan has displayed more diverse, and sometimes even self-contradictory, policies toward the Chinese mainland. Externally, it is clear that none of the outside forces with an interest in the Asia-Pacific region are likely to show the kind of interest in Chinese unification as Germany received. Also, there is still animosity between Taiwan and the mainland in international arena. Although the PRC and the ROC are rapidly developing relations in areas other than politics, there are two restraining factors which severely restrict this burgeoning interaction: politicization and asymmetry of power.