ABSTRACT
If democratisation in Taiwan has resulted in attempts to reinterpret the one-China principle, this raises the question of what kinds of links the island can maintain with China in the pursuit of its own interests. This question needs to be addressed both within Taiwan’s domestic politics and in terms of the relationship between Taiwan and those communities of people in the world who define themselves as ‘Chinese’. Concerning the debate inside Taiwan, what democratisation has resulted in has been the breaking of the nationalist link that binds Chinese identity with the single Chinese state. Yet it is important to note that, even as the reforms to the ROC constitution were getting into full swing, Lee Teng-hui made a point of emphasising that the people of the island could not break their relations with the rest of the Chinese people. Nor could they break their links with Chinese culture (Lee 1991b: 133).
