Taiwan’s Framing Strategy of Democracy and Security in the Indo-Pacific

• In Event: Major Power Competition and Internal Politics in Asia

Abstract

Over the last few years, China has become more assertive in its foreign policy and territorial claims, and this has led to increasing worries among countries in the Indo-Pacific region. Meanwhile, Taiwan is at the forefront of China’s economic sanctions and military intimidation. The improvements in U.S.-Taiwan relations lead to the following empirical puzzles: what role does Taiwan play in the U.S. grand strategy in the Indo-Pacific region and how can the political leaders in Taiwan adopt effective framing strategies to obtain substantive commitments from the United States?
Based on Taiwan’s official documents, public statements from the U.S. leadership, and media coverage in Chinese and English, this study unpacks how the Taiwanese government adopts the framing strategy of liberal democracy and national security. From 2009 to 2016, President Ma highlighted Taiwan’s democratic achievements but downplayed China’s security threat even as it became more expansionist in the 2010s. From 2016 to 2023, President Tsai has actively linked Taiwan’s democracy to the increasing security ties with the United States.
This article proceeds as follows. First, it engages the current literature on power asymmetry, democratization and conflicts, and discourse analysis. Second, this study offers a framework of how a medium- or small-sized country frames its security interests to appeal to a hegemon. It highlights how the political leaders strategically associate Taiwan’s liberal democracy with U.S. national security. Third, it provides in-depth case studies on how both President Ma and President Tsai executed these framing strategies. Finally, this study concludes with policy implications for countries in the Asia Pacific region and beyond.

Author

• Christina Lai, Academia Sinica