Taiwan’s Failure Under the New Southbound Policy Regarding Chinese Influence in Thailand by Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal and Sukrid Peansuwan (original) (raw)
Related papers
Thailand in Sino-US Rivalry at the Crossroads of the Thai Internal Conflict
The political crisis in Thailand started in the final years of the Thaksin Shinawatra administration (2001-2006), which finally led to a military coup in September 2006. But it was not the last coup Thailand had experienced. In May 2014, the military staged another coup overthrowing the elected government of Yingluck Shinawatra (2011-2014). Yingluck is sister of Thaksin. Months before, anti-government protesters took control of business districts in Bangkok while putting pressure on Yingluck who was attempting to pass an Amnesty Bill that could set her brother free from corruption charges. The protests paved the way for the military to once again intervene in politics and suggested that the army’s political interests seemed to align with those of the protesters. Currently, Thailand is under the custody of the military regime of Prime Minister General Prayuth Chan-ocha, former army chief and leader of the coup makers. The enduring political crisis has effectively shaped the contour of the country’s foreign policy, especially in its relations with the great powers. The crisis has also provided a vital platform for these powers—in this case, the United States and China, to compete with each other in order to influence the behaviour and policy of Thailand at a time when the country has been experiencing political turbulence. It is however imperative to explain in a wider context the role of Washington and Beijing in Thailand’s protracted crisis and their competition for power and supremacy in Southeast Asia. Thailand continues to serve as a “strategic depot” for the two great powers to consolidate their sphere of influence in this part of the world. From this perspective, it can be argued that the Thai political situation has further intensified the level of competition between the United States and China, which has in turn readjusted the overall balance of power in Southeast Asia. This paper examines the different approaches of the United States and China in dealing with the Thai crisis. It asks: Which approach is more effective in the attempt to win the Thai influence? It investigates the way in which the competition between the two great powers has come to dominate Thailand’s foreign affairs. In the final section, the paper briefly discusses the standing of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Thailand’s polarised politics and seeks to elucidate whether Thailand has been able to exploit its position in ASEAN to dilute the overwhelming power of the United States and China over its domestic and foreign affairs.
Thailand's Indo-Pacific Adrift? A Reluctant Realignment with the United States and China
Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs , 2024
China's assertive rise triggers existential and discursive anxieties in the Indo-Pacific since 2017. The US rebalances, using strategies like institutional balancing (minilateralism) and discursive balancing (free and open Indo-Pacific). Thailand, a long-time US ally, hesitates to counterbalance China. Post-2014 coup, Thailand's military junta aligned with China due to necessity, persisting post-2019 elections. This article reevaluates Thai foreign policy under Prayut Chan-ocha, suggesting default hedging, not strategic hedging. Various agencies pursue diplomacy without a coherent strategy. The article unfolds in three parts. First, it examines Thailand's reluctance to embrace the US-led Indo-Pacific strategy, stemming from differing threat perceptions and bureaucratic politics. It then discusses Thailand's absence of a comprehensive Indo-Pacific narrative and its default hedging via military, economic, and ideational aspects. The article concludes by exploring the post-Prayut era's impact on Thai foreign policy.
Taiwan: Democracy, Cross-Strait Relations and Regional Security, 2014
Emile Kok-Kheng Yeoh (focus issue editor) (2014), International Journal of China Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1, April 2014 (Focus – Taiwan: Democracy, Cross-Strait Relations and Regional Security), pp. 1-195 (195 pp. + x). [Scopus - Q1] https://www.dropbox.com/s/mqg4t2eq1kb54xi/IJCS-V5N1-combined-text-cover.pdf
The Transnational Protection Regime and Taiwan's Democratization
Journal of East Asian Studies, 2009
On September 28, 1986, the Democratic Progressive Party was formed in defiance of restrictions set by a decades-old authoritarian regime, heralding the emergence of a fully competitive multiparty electoral system in Taiwan. Existing literature on Taiwan's democratic breakthrough suggests that international factors have played a significant role in bringing about democracy on the island. But what exactly were these external factors and how have they effected political change in Taiwan? A reexamination of the changing geopolitical and normative environments surrounding Taiwan suggests that they were crucial in shaping political development on the island in ways that have not been described in the literature. This article examines how the geopolitical and international normative environment enabled myriad external substate and nonstate actors to form a transnational “protection regime” around the political opposition, preserving the democratic movement and allowing it to reach its ...
Tipping the Balance in Southeast Asia? Thailand, the United States and China
Professor John Blaxland and Dr Greg Raymond’s Centre of Gravity paper breaks new ground in our understanding of Thai strategic and military culture and how Thai security elites view the United States, China, and the shifting geopolitical landscape in Asia. This analysis provides a roadmap to scholars seeking to understand shifting Thai policies and for policymakers seeking to maintain a strong footing for the U.S.-Thailand alliance during a time of strategic flux. This paper is co-badged with the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Washington D.C, USA. It was funded by a grant from the Minerva Research Institute.
International Journal of China Studies, 2014
In 1949, Kuomintang (KMT) leader Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek retreated with a significant amount of gold and approximately 2 million Nationalist refugees to the small island of Taiwan where he established a hard-line authoritarian regime, shortly following the 228 Massacre of 1947. The White Terror to which Taiwan was consigned after the massacre was one of the longest martial law periods in world history, as tens of thousands of Taiwanese were imprisoned and executed under the grim eye of the Taiwan Garrison Command secret police body. Who in that era could have predicted the day would come when four decades later President Chiang Ching-kuo (son of Chiang Kai-shek) and Taiwan’s ensuing leaders would successfully facilitate a bloodless and relatively peaceful democratic transition by imposition for their nation and turn the de facto independent island state into one of the most vibrant democracies in the world and a best-case paragon of civil liberties and political rights-respecting free society? With the democracy of Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), continues to stand in intriguing, defiant contrast to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s ruthlessly maintained political monopoly in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on the mainland, Taiwan tends to present itself as a perfect textbook validation of the modernization theory, for she has proven to be one of the most successful later industrializers in the history of the twentieth century as well as a “best-case” democracy. When Chiang Ching-kuo’s successor, the native Taiwanese Lee Teng-hui came onto the scene in 1988, modernized Taiwan was ready for his efforts to facilitate her evolution into a full-fledged constitutional democracy. More than twenty years on, today Taiwan has matured into the most democratic free society in East Asia and indeed also one of the most vibrant democracies in the whole of Asia and even the world. https://www.dropbox.com/s/y4jtkocurv8l08l/IJCS-V5N1-yeohForeword.pdf