Introduction

The diplomatic competition between Taipei and Beijing persists even though Taipei has lost greater ground during the past two decades. Nonetheless, given the new changing geopolitics of US–China competition as China raises a challenge to American hegemony and the international order, this competition deserves a fresh look in light of this changing landscape. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, based on quantitative and qualitative methods, we explore the economic and social impact of the diplomatic switch from Taipei to Beijing, or vice versa, in a systematic way. We examine the promise of economic growth in establishing diplomatic relations with China, trace the peril of Chinese foreign aid and assess the threat of China’s economic coercion. We investigate the critical regions of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Oceania but also look at Central and Eastern European countries where the diplomatic switch does not exist and at the potential role of technology sectors in Taiwan’s economic diplomacy. This collaborative work contributes not only to Taiwan/China studies but also to scholarship in international relations and international political economy.