ABSTRACT
The chapter introduces the sovereignty narratives advanced by Taiwan’s two key non-state actors, namely, the opposition Democratic Progressive Party and former President Lee Teng-hui, both of whom challenged the KMT administration’s sovereignty discourse on the East China Sea issue. It also identifies Taiwanese public opinion as an addressee of the state and non-state actors, who sought to mobilise public support for their respective sovereignty notions. Furthermore, it compares and contrast the Taiwanese public responses to the East China Sea dispute with those in China. The chapter argues that, in the context of the sovereignty contests in Taiwan, the Taiwanese public emerged as a collective domestic actor, limiting the parameters of the KMT’s and DDP’s sovereignty constructions. Thus, pro-Japanese public sentiments (as well as Japan’s centrality to Taiwan’s economic development) impeded President Ma’s One China project as based on the enmity against Tokyo. Resulting from this was the Ma government’s reticence on the islands conflict that made the public question President Ma’s capacity to effectively safeguard the ROC’s sovereignty in the disputed waters.
