The Myth of War in the Taiwan Strait

Dr. Taiyi Sun is associate professor of political science at Christopher Newport University. Dr. Dennis Lu-Chung Weng is associate professor of political science at Sam Houston State University and the founding director of the Asia Pacific Peace Research Institute (APPRI).

Chapter 1. The Myth of War in the Taiwan Strait and the Yizhou Dilemma Chapter 2. The Origin of the Taiwan Question and Where We Are Now Chapter 3. Elite Survey Results from Beijing, Taipei, and Washington: Perceptions of War and Peace in the Taiwan Strait Chapter 4. Elite Interviews and Focus Group Results from Beijing, Taipei, and Washington: Key Debates on War and Peace in the Taiwan Strait Chapter 5. Do Decision Makers and the People Think Alike? The Perception Differences between the Elites and the Public Chapter 6. Assessment by the Highest-Level Elites from Mainland China Chapter 7. Assessment by the Highest-Level Elites from the Republic of China on Taiwan Chapter 8. Assessment by the Highest-Level Elites from the U.S. Chapter 9. The Yizhou Dilemma and the Prospects of the Taiwan Strait

In this innovative book, The Myth of War in the Taiwan Strait, Taiyi Sun and Dennis Weng draw insights from a strikingly similar conflict during the ancient Three Kingdoms period. Deploying rarely accessible interviews and surveys, they uncover what US, China, and Taiwan each must weigh in their decisions on war. -- Yong Deng, U.S. Naval Academy Prevailing policy discourse on the acute danger of war over Taiwan remains one-sided and myopic. Professors Sun and Weng provide an important counter argument based on close assessment of a comparable crisis in China's past along with analysis of recent surveys of elite opinion in Taiwan, mainland China and the United States. The supporting prefaces of Ma Ying-jeou, Jia Qingguo and Richard Bush are noteworthy. -- Robert G. Sutter, professor of International Affairs, George Washington University Move over, Thucydides! To western scholars asserting that war in the Taiwan Strait is likely because Sparta and Athens got into a war 2400 years ago, this book offers a sensible riposte: isn't China's own history at least as relevant? And shouldn't you learn some of it? Drawing on elite interviews, public opinion surveys - and yes, important examples from China's own turbulent history - Taiyi Sun and Dennis Weng push back against the prevailing sense of doom and gloom to present an original and nuanced assessment of the prospects for peace in the Taiwan Strait. -- Kharis Templeman, Hoover Institution, Stanford University The Myth of War in the Taiwan Strait should be required reading for anyone interested in cross-Strait relations. Professors Sun and Weng make adept use of historical parallels, novel survey data, and interviews with elite policymakers to produce a nuanced assessment of the prospects for peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. Their important study belongs on bookshelves next to Richard Bush's Difficult Choices, Scott Kastner's War and Peace in the Taiwan Strait, and Ketian Zhang's China's Gambit. -- Michael A. Hunzeker, Associate Professor, Schar School of Policy & Government