The Perception of China Threat and Civil-Military Relations in Taiwan during Chen Shui-bian Era

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to explain the typology of civilian control in Taiwan during Chen Shui-bian era and to explain the correlation between that particular type of civilian control and the perception of China threat among civilian groups.\nThe establishment of civilian control in most cases is seen as either a result or a consequence of democratization process or the transformation from authoritarian to democratic society. The assessment on the case of Taiwan is no different. In this logic of thinking, the establishment of a democratic or objective civilian control is considered as the main goal. An objective civilian control, according to Huntington, has several prerequisites such as military disengagement from politics, full military submission to civilian authority, and, most importantly, the establishment of professional military. Critics to Huntington ideals usually revolve around the necessity to have a clear disengagement of the military from politics. Drawing from Huntington and his critics, I propose three indicators to categorize civilian control into objective and subjective. Those are the military autonomy, which is a direct result of the existence of a clear set of boundaries between military and civilian areas or roles, the existence or inexistence of intra-civilian rivalry, and the existence or inexistence of interpenetration. Using those indicators, my assessment on Taiwan during Chen Shui-bian era finds out that the military autonomy did exist with the adoption of the twin defense laws, the existence of an acute intra-civilian rivalry, and the existence of civilian penetration into military area. This civilian penetration itself was a result of an overt-concentration of roles into civilian hands, which leaving the military in a very limited role and powerless position, and the intra-civilian rivalry which drove both Chen’s government and pan-blue opposition to use military issues as bargaining chip to strengthen their political position. In conclusion, instead of having an objective civilian control, Taiwan under Chen Shui-bian was suffering from a subjective civilian control.\nTo answer the question of why such an opposite result appeared, from what is supposed to be the result of the democratization process, I argue that the divergent of perception on China threat among civilian is among the factors that explain such a contradiction. Most assessment on the issue of civilian control in Taiwan is focusing on the identity politics as the explaining factor. In this thesis, I argue that the identity politics is necessary but not sufficient to explain the contradictory result. The divergent perception on China threat among civilian serves as the foundation to explain the political behavior of political parties in Taiwan. Due to this differing perception, political parties could not find a congruent understanding of external threat that makes any defense related issue became a political issue.

The aim of this thesis is to explain the typology of civilian control in Taiwan during Chen Shui-bian era and to explain the correlation between that particular type of civilian control and the perception of China threat among civilian groups.\nThe establishment of civilian control in most cases is seen as either a result or a consequence of democratization process or the transformation from authoritarian to democratic society. The assessment on the case of Taiwan is no different. In this logic of thinking, the establishment of a democratic or objective civilian control is considered as the main goal. An objective civilian control, according to Huntington, has several prerequisites such as military disengagement from politics, full military submission to civilian authority, and, most importantly, the establishment of professional military. Critics to Huntington ideals usually revolve around the necessity to have a clear disengagement of the military from politics. Drawing from Huntington and his critics, I propose three indicators to categorize civilian control into objective and subjective. Those are the military autonomy, which is a direct result of the existence of a clear set of boundaries between military and civilian areas or roles, the existence or inexistence of intra-civilian rivalry, and the existence or inexistence of interpenetration. Using those indicators, my assessment on Taiwan during Chen Shui-bian era finds out that the military autonomy did exist with the adoption of the twin defense laws, the existence of an acute intra-civilian rivalry, and the existence of civilian penetration into military area. This civilian penetration itself was a result of an overt-concentration of roles into civilian hands, which leaving the military in a very limited role and powerless position, and the intra-civilian rivalry which drove both Chen’s government and pan-blue opposition to use military issues as bargaining chip to strengthen their political position. In conclusion, instead of having an objective civilian control, Taiwan under Chen Shui-bian was suffering from a subjective civilian control.\nTo answer the question of why such an opposite result appeared, from what is supposed to be the result of the democratization process, I argue that the divergent of perception on China threat among civilian is among the factors that explain such a contradiction. Most assessment on the issue of civilian control in Taiwan is focusing on the identity politics as the explaining factor. In this thesis, I argue that the identity politics is necessary but not sufficient to explain the contradictory result. The divergent perception on China threat among civilian serves as the foundation to explain the political behavior of political parties in Taiwan. Due to this differing perception, political parties could not find a congruent understanding of external threat that makes any defense related issue became a political issue.