Reorienting Taiwan into the Chinese Orbit: Power Analysis of China's Rise in Promotion of China's One-China Principle in International Structures

Abstract

Being the second largest economy with the largest foreign exchange reserves, not only has China joined most international governance mechanisms, but it is also expected to carry more responsibility in international governance, especially after 2008. As more doors open for China, the country develops more power resources. Therefore, its longstanding One-China Principle shows no signs of wavering but will be advanced as China’s participation in international governance continues to expand. One significant consequence of China’s accelerating integration into international governance is the continual forcing of Taiwan into China’s orbit. Heretofore, the greatest pressure on Taiwan has been a growing number of global agents acknowledging Taiwan as an integral part of China. With China’s more prominent global role, that pattern gradually threatens to become an “international consensus” that conditions Taiwan’s development. This paper carefully uses a dyad of concepts of power analysis to measure the process of China’s promoted power in and through international governance for building structures, wherein the application of the One-China Principle is reorienting Taiwan into the Chinese orbit.