The State of the Status Quo: Prospects for Stability in the Taiwan Strait

About the Event

For decades, the United States has urged both the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Taiwan to maintain the "status quo" in the Taiwan Strait. In practice, this has meant calling on Taiwan to refrain from declaring independence and for the PRC to not use force to bring the island under its control. Polls show that a plurality of Taiwanese citizens support maintaining the status quo indefinitely. But recent developments, including more aggressive Chinese demonstrations of power, have called into question whether such a position can hold. Some observers call for the United States and other countries to do more to preserve the status quo by reassuring Beijing, while others suggest that growing Chinese assertiveness renders the idea of the status quo obsolete. This discussion will assess what the status quo currently looks like in the Taiwan Strait, what it would mean to preserve it, and whether a commitment to it is still the best strategy for maintaining regional peace.

Speakers