Reflections on the NGO forum on women '95

Abstract

The approximately 30,000 participants in the Nongovernmental Organization (NGO) Forum on Women ‘95 did more than simply give voice and attention to often invisible and silenced women's issues. They journeyed to the forum from over 185 countries to Huairou, a resort town forty kilometers outside of Beijing, the People's Republic of China, to network, exchange information, and devise innovative and determined implementation of solutions to the world's most pressing problems. The NGO forum inspired commitment to action in many forms: renewing and forging solidarity on issues and strategies, lobbying government delegates during the overlapping (4–15 September 1995) official U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, and sustaining and expanding day-to-day work in communities after participants returned home.     

An Indochinese conference in Vancouver

Abstract

An important conference took place at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, on April 1st to 6th. Six Indochinese delegates met about 600 women from Voice of Women, Women Strike for Peace, Third World, and Women's Liberation groups of western North America. The purpose of the conference was “to meet and talk in order to get a better understanding and strengthen our solidarity so as to put an early end to the war, and to give information to Canadian and U.S. friends on the situation in Indochina.” Third World delegates, who numbered about 300, came from Black, Chicano, Asian, and Native American and Canadian groups. The Indochinese also talked to G.I. wives, veterans, deserters, and draft resisters, and held public meetings with Canadian citizens. A similar conference followed in Toronto (see The Guardian, New York, April 17, page 5).     

Constructing Peaceful Development: The Changing Interpretations of “One China” and Beijing’s Taiwan Strait Policy

For rationalists, China (PRC)’s current conciliatory policy toward Taiwan is merely “calculative.” Hence, Chinese leaders must act patiently with Taiwan to dampen the “China threat theory.” This article contends that strategic considerations cannot entirely justify Beijing’s Taiwan policy. Given the PRC’s steadfast position on reunification, it is unclear why Beijing has, since the 1990s, allowed for a looser construction of the “one China” principle and even tacitly acknowledged the existence of Taiwan’s Republic of China (ROC). In line with the constructivist theory of argumentative persuasion, my position stresses that changing discourses have affected Chinese leaders’ perceptions of the Taiwan Strait problem. New identities and interests have been reconstituted to redefine the PRC relations vis-à-vis the ROC. While it is unlikely that Beijing would formally accept the ROC, the current trajectory raises hope that cross-strait ties may become more stabilized in the long run.     

Taiwan’s Economic Diplomacy in Vietnam from the 1990s to the Early Twenty-First Century

In Vietnam, Taiwanese (In this article, 'Taiwanese' refer to all the citizens in Taiwan, although Taiwanese may not be a perfect usage for all the inhabitants in Taiwan. For example, some 400,000 natives of JinMen County live and work in Taiwan Province who might not identify with Taiwan Province. Also, many Vietnamese women in the ROC marry 'Taiwanese.' Perhaps it will take a few decades, if not longer, for all the inhabitants in Taiwan to identify with "Taiwanese.") businesses have led the Taipei government in the movement to ??Go South.?? They have served as pioneers, surrogates and middlemen for Taiwan??s economic diplomacy in Vietnam. Vietnam's 'Doi Moi' (Open Door) policy, inaugurated in December 1986, encouraged greater openness to economic investment from abroad. Compared with China, Vietnam enjoys the privilege of better access to the European market. Vietnam has become the only country in Southeast Asia that can parallel China in terms of trade and investment at the turn of the century.     

Economic cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region and the role of the P.R.C.

His publications includeChina’s Development Experience in Comparative Perspective, and, with Allen Whiting,China’s Future. This is a revised version of a paper presented at a conference on “Problems of Peace, Security and Economic Cooperation in Asia and the Pacific” June 1987, in Beijing, P.R.C. The conference was co-sponsored by the Institute for Sino-Soviet Studies and the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, Beijing, P.R.C.     

China-Taiwan Relations Through the Lens of the Interaction Between China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits and Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation

China-Taiwan Relations have become significantly less confrontational since 2008. One of the indicators demonstrating the improvement of their relations is the resumption of the contact between China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) and Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) in 2008 after 9 years of no formal interaction. The purpose of this paper is to explore China-Taiwan relations in the period from 1990 to 2008 by examining the interaction between the aforementioned two organizations which were founded in 1991. By analyzing the relevant official announcements and statements made by China and Taiwan in the period from 1990 to 2008, this paper finds that China became more hostile toward Taiwan and therefore its ARATS in turn was unwilling to negotiate with Taiwan’s SEF when it perceived that the Taiwanese government was pushing for Taiwan’s independence. By contrast, when it perceived that the Taiwanese government was more compromising on the issue of Taiwan’s independence, it became relatively conciliatory and its ARATS in turn was more willing to interact with Taiwan’s SEF.     

Jhagrapur: Poor peasants and women in a Bangladesh Village

Abstract

In the opening pages of Jhagrapur: Poor Peasants and Women in a Bangladesh Village, Dutch authors Jenneke Arens and Jos van Beurden comment that it would take “academic acrobats” to understand Bangladesh village life from a distance. The same holds true for the international experts and government bureaucrats who design development strategies for the country. Too often their ideas, incubated far from the villages, gloss over such basic dynamics of village life as conflicts between classes, the struggle over land and the subjugation of women. But ignorance is bliss for those who seek technical solutions to social problems, so it was not surprising that the Catholic volunteer aid agency (Christian Organization for Relief and Rehabilitation) which commissioned Jhagrapur refused to publish it when they read the results. It was simply too controversial.     

Burkina Faso: Between Taiwan's active public diplomacy and China's business attractiveness

Burkina Faso and Taiwan restored official relations in 1994, after which Taipei's aid has been generous. Taiwan's approach to official development assistance has remained largely traditional, closely linking its public diplomacy to its foreign policy objectives. Trade between both countries has remained very modest. In the same period, because of mainland China's rise and active strategy of ‘going out’, Burkina Faso has developed a robust trade and business relationship with China. As a result, the pull to establish official ties with China (and thus end ties with Taiwan) has become a domestic political issue. After the ousting of President Blaise Compaoré in 2014, a failed coup and then the return to democracy as seen in the November 2015 elections, this debate has become more public. While Burkina Faso has remained faithful to Taiwan and continues to publicly appreciate its assistance, there is no certainty that the political values that both Burkina Faso and Taiwan share will prevent a Burkinabe move towards China.     

The Chinese dilemma: Dual recognition is the ultimate solution

Until recently, both the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC) claimed to represent ‘China’ in the international arena. The ROC on Taiwan recently abandoned this position, but the PRC government still regards itself as the sole legitimate ruler of all China, of which Taiwan is considered part. Beijing therefore insists that foreign countries choose between the two when establishing diplomatic ties. South Africa, which has formal relations with the ROC, should avoid making a choice by opting for dual recognition.     

Reviewers for Volume 2

ABSTRACT

This article argues that current passive and static conceptualizations of Chinese approaches to nuclear and conventional deterrence are no longer appropriate. Recent evidence indicates that these postures are far more integrated, flexible, and dynamic than Beijing’s official rhetoric suggests, and that during the past decade a de facto shift toward a limited nuclear war-fighting posture has already taken place. By applying an International Relations (IR) structural-realist lens to conceptualize a relatively under-researched discourse that relates to recent indications that China is contemplating the deployment of nuclear weapons for war-fighting (or victory-denial) purposes. A radical doctrinal shift of this kind (or even the perception of one) could presage a paradigm shift in China’s long-standing nuclear posture and the nuclear balance in Asia.     

Women in the House (of Parliament) in Fiji: What’s Gender Got to Do with It?

Abstract

Women in Fiji have made steady, albeit slow, progress in terms of parliamentary representation, with women now holding 14% of seats in the lower house of parliament. Some of the progress has occurred as a result of improvements associated with increased socio-economic development, such as education, female employment and incremental changes in women’s standing in Fiji society. Much of this change, however, has been due to women’s movements and civil society activism becoming more astute to concerns of gender equality and lobbying for women’s political participation. In a country that witnessed four political coups, women have had to create their own path into the public sphere. Despite progress, with an increasing number of women in the 2014 parliament, patriarchy is still a major force hindering women’s political advancement in Fiji. This paper argues that a combination of cultural stereotyping and persistent gendered norms contribute to masculinisation of the political realm and eulogise women’s role in the private sphere. But gender intersecting with ethnicity, age and class create differential levels of political agency for different groups of women in Fiji.     

Reunification deadlocked: The United States,China and Taiwan

Abstract

Since the New China News Agency's release on March 15, 1949, of an editorial entitled “The Chinese People Are Determined to Liberate Taiwan,” that theme has been a cardinal principle of Peking's national policy. To appreciate fully the Chinese position, one must recognize not only Peking's claim that Taiwan is legally, ethnically, and historically an integral part of China, but also modern China's yeaming for national reunification and territorial integrity. On the ethnic question, China points to the fact that except for an extremely small number of aborigines, the inhabitants on the island today, including the so-called “native Taiwanese,” are of Chinese ancestry. They speak southeastern Chinese dialects and share with their compatriots on the mainland all the other basic Chinese cultural traits. Historically, as a Chinese spokesman once put it, “long before Christopher Columbus discovered America, the Chinese people were already in Taiwan. Long before the United States achieved its own independence, Taiwan had already become an inseparable part of the territory of China.” Although imperialist Japan occupied the island from 1895 to 1945, the island was returned to China in 1945 after Japan's surrender at the end of the Pacific War.     

The reorientation of place legislation in England in the 1690s

Summary

Mediating Conflict in the Swiss Diets of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries

The Helvetic Confederation developed in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries as a web of alliances between the most important urban and peasant republics (Orte) in the area of present‐day Switzerland. The only form of mediating conflicts laid down in the alliances was by tribunals of arbitration; but these were never recognised by all the Orte in the web of alliances and proved inadequate in the face of growing antagonisms and coalitions throughout the Confederacy. It became necessary to have recourse to political arrangements involving the interested parties. The forum for these arrangements was the Diets, meetings of deputies of all members of the Confederacy. These more or less represented the most important political forces. Difficulties arose only when there was no consensus in individual Orten and when the official deputies to the Diet represented only the magistrates (Obrigkeiten). In such cases it could happen, especially in matters of foreign policy, that individual groups went their own way and thwarted the decisions of the Diet. It usually took a long time to arrive at a consensus in the Diets because the deputies were bound by an ‘imperative mandate’ and the minority would mostly not accept the will of the majority. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries participation and the achievement of consensus were the conditions of joint action of the Helvetic Confederation.     

Sandakan no. 8 brothel

Abstract

Karayukisan is a word derived from two longer words which mean “one who has traveled to China,” but means itself an overseas prostitute who, from the middle of the 19th century to the end of the First World War, had left behind her homeland of Japan and gone abroad to sell herself to foreigners; such prostitutes went not only to China and Siberia in the north and to the countries of Southeast Asia in the south but also to India and Africa. They came from Japan as a whole, but especially, it is said, from Kyushu: from the island of Amakusa and the Shimabara Peninsula. That most shared this origin was due, basically, as I shall explain later, to the poverty of these regions, whose character derived from both natural and social causes. Indeed, these prostitutes and the poor peasant women of Shimabara and Amakusa undoubtedly represent two branches of the same tree.     

Australian Support for an Independent Taiwan Prior to the Recognition of the People's Republic of China*

Australia's efforts between 1950 and 1972 to create an independent Taiwan are an important, largely overlooked element of Australia and Taiwan's international relations. Australia saw de jure independence for Taiwan as a means to support the US while pursuing the interrelated goals of accommodating the People's Republic of China (PRC) and minimising contradictions between US China policy and the policies of the UK and other countries important to it. Initially Australia favoured the establishment of a Taiwanese majority‐controlled state. This preference later gave way to greater support for an independent Republic of China on Taiwan under Chinese Nationalist rule. Australia nevertheless consistently justified its policy via reference to the principle of self‐determination for Taiwan's people — either immediately in the case of a Taiwanese Taiwan, or postponed into the indefinite future in the case of a Chinese Nationalist Taiwan. Championing Taiwan independence lost its utility for Australia when Sino‐ US relations improved in the late‐1960s to early‐1970s, and it became possible for Australia to make the concessions over Taiwan demanded by China without damaging its relationship with the US. This shift preceded the election of a Labor government committed to building a friendly relationship with China. Australia then dropped its policy of advocating Taiwanese independence, and established official relations with China in late 1972.     

Political Parties and Women’s Rights in Turkey

Abstract

Political parties are important political actors, but they are seldom studied in relation to human rights. This article examines the human rights discourse of political parties in Turkey by focusing on women’s rights. The content analysis of party programmes issued by major political parties between 1923 and 2007 reveals significant differences and changes in parties’ approach to women, ranging from no mentioning of women to addressing women’s issues from a feminist perspective. Women’s rights and issues, once neglected practically by all political parties, have gained attention during the last few decades, largely due to women’s activism. While conservative, religious, and Turkish nationalist parties started to display a dualist approach that combines traditionalism with gender equality, social democrat, socialist, and pro-Kurdish parties increasingly employ feminist terminology and analysis.     

Taiwan: National Identity and Democratization,by Alan M. Wachman

Abstract

How does the national identity problem affect the process of democratization? Is consensus on national identity a prerequisite for democratization? Alan Wachman writes about the most intractable problem in Taiwan and its implications for understanding democratization in general. He contends that previous studies suggesting the importance of a consensus on national identity for building a democratic system are inapplicable to Taiwan. From 1991 to 1993 Wachman interviewed prominent political figures and scholars of various backgrounds in Taiwan regarding five general questions: (I) Is it possible to distinguish between Chinese culture and Taiwanese culture? What are the sources of cultural identity for Taiwanese and Mainlanders? (2) How should we regard China in the present era? Is it a culture, a people, or a place? (3) To what degree is democracy compatible with Chinese culture? (4) How should the matter of Taiwan's political status be resolved? Is democracy a means or an end? (5) To what degree does the inability to resolve the matter of national identity impede the development of democracy in Taiwan?     

A New May Fourth Movement?

Abstract

April 10, 1970, is likely to be remembered as an historical date by overseas Chinese. On that day some 2,500 Chinese students and faculty descended on Washington from all over the United States and Canada. They came not just for another annual spring tour of the cherry trees, but to demonstrate against the policies of three governments–Japan, Taiwan and the United States. For Japan seized the Tiao-Yu Tai Islands from China last November, the United States supported Japan's claim, and the Chiang regime failed to take any effective action to get the islands back.     

Taiwan’s Sub-national Government Relations with Japan: Post-1979 Developments

In 1972 the Japanese government ended its diplomatic recognition of the Republic of China. And yet it did not. In the aftermath of that decision, colonial legacy ties between Taiwan and Japan were drawn upon to create a new form of relationship, with ties that were official in all but name. Taiwanese cities and counties were also encouraged to develop formal ties with their Japanese counterparts. These sub-national ties are a critical – but little researched – component of the enduring bilateral relationship between these two countries. This article – based on extensive fieldwork in both countries – is an initial effort in understanding how these ties have developed and function, and how they support bilateral relations between Taiwan and Japan. Drawing on additional fieldwork in China, this article also considers what formal limitations exist on the para-diplomatic relations between these countries.     

美国对亚非会议政策再探讨——基于东亚冷战的视角

20世纪50年代中期东亚地区冷战的特点是美国着力组建旨在遏制中国的军事同盟体系,而中国通过落实国际和平统一战线政策力图突破美国的封锁。亚非会议成为中美两国冷战角力的焦点。美国对亚非会议的政策有两个基本点:第一,美国不公开反对召开亚非会议,但鼓励所谓“温和国家”与会,以间接发挥美国对会议的影响力;第二,全力阻止会议发起国做出邀请中国与会的决定。在行动没有奏效的情况下,转而要求自己的盟国代表“自由世界”发言,尽可能限制中国代表团在会上的影响。会议开幕后,美国没有对周恩来提出的缓和台湾地区紧张局势的声明给予积极回应。会议结束后,美国逐渐认识到周恩来的外交活动在会议上取得了成功,但仍然未能促使它改变遏制、敌视新中国的政策。