An Indispensable Pillar of Obama’s “Pivot” to Asia: Continuing Strategic Ambiguity across the Taiwan Strait

Though not explicitly stated in President Barack Obama’s “pivot” or “rebalancing to Asia” policy, Taiwan remains an essential, albeit a silent, partner of Washington’s renewed focus toward the region. The Obama administration has envisioned cultivating a stable security and economic environment in the Asia Pacific, where China rises and becomes an evermore influential regional and global power. While the “pivot” focuses on advancing America’s security and economic interests across the Asian Pacific region, it also aims at achieving a long-standing US liberal and normative objective: to foster greater political liberalization and, even, democratization in mainland China. To this end, the United States strives to preserve the de facto autonomy and security of Taiwan, a successful ethnically Chinese democracy, whose experience—transitioning from a Leninist party-state to a multiparty democratic system—may serve a transformative function to promote political change in the People’s Republic of China (PRC).