ABSTRACT
The People's Republic of China approaches toward Taiwan have vacillated among various strategies. For the moment, although Taiwan's democratization is helping to facilitate broad contacts, it has brought to the surface indigenous nationalism that is certain to complicate peaceful resolution of the Taiwan-mainland conflicts unless national identification evolves in the mainland to accommodate democratic federalist possibilities. Disparity of living standards, differences in social, economic, and political systems, and distrust of Chinese Communist Party's promises have all contributed to Taiwan's rejection of such a proposal for unification. The Kuomintang regime came to Taiwan in 1949 with a pledge to recover the mainland, achieving political unification under its auspices. The aspect of Taiwan-mainland relations that has had the most profound political implications is the rapid growth of trade and Taiwanese investments in the mainland. The prospect of continuing economic relations with the mainland also poses elements of uncertainty for Taiwan.
