From “Unification” To “Independence”: The Change of Taiwan’s Authorities’ Positioning on Cross-Strait Relations under The Rise of Emerging Middle Class

Abstract

After the Chinese Civil War, Taiwan went through a process of profound structural change in its economy towards industrialization, which was most characterized by the growing power of the middle class under an industrialized society, a power that in turn acted on Taiwanese society and pushed forward the process of democratization in Taiwan. Contrary to the booming economy of Taiwan, the international status of the region has been in tatters. After the Restoration of the lawful rights of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations, the Taiwan authorities have completely lost the international recognition of representing the whole of China, and the legitimacy of the martial law rule based on this has been gradually eroded. With the authoritarian rule in danger, the society of Taiwan is in urgent need of reforms. The emergence of a large and self-centered middle class became an important stimulus for Taiwan's democratic transition, and the 1980s saw the rise of social movements in Taiwan, with the idea of "Taiwan's independence" being raised more and more frequently in the course of exchanges with the Kuomintang (KMT) authorities. This paper will use stimulus-response theory to examine how the stimulus of the rise of the emerging middle class has affected the evolution of the Taiwan authorities' positioning of cross-strait relations from "unification" to "independence", and finally draw the conclusions of this paper.