ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the ambiguity of sovereignty in East Asia. It draws on academic and journalistic work on Taiwan's responses to the Diaoyutai/Senkaku Islands dispute. The complexity of Taiwan's national identity reflects contentions regarding "legitimacy". After the Second World War, the Nationalist government under Chiang Kai-shek fostered an anti-Communist ideology and Chinese identity, reinforced by US dominance militarily, politically, economically, and culturally. According to Li and Chen, Japanese-ness has become a part of daily life in Taiwan, not just a political injunction. Leo Ching points out that while early anti-Japanese sentiments embraced China as the ancestral homeland, this was based on desperation and fantasy, not on political or cultural identification. As Castells points out, online discourse takes place in a medium that allows, for the first time, communication among many to many in a chosen time and on a global scale. Cyber discourse serves as a major example.
