Looking north, looking south...Taiwan's politics in the twenty-first century... politicized society...review

These three books vary considerably, both in content and in quality. Though disparate, the topic of Taiwan s politics more or less brings them together, especially if we include Taiwan s relations with China, the United States, and other countries within that rubric. The best book of the three, especially in terms of its uniqueness, is Looking North, Looking South, edited by Anne-Marie Brady. The book?s main focus is China s entry into the South Pacific region, a facet of which is China s competition with Taiwan. The book s chapters consider many other aspects as well. It gets off to a bad start with a common stereotype: China is on the rise. Therefore, Taiwan (still formally known as the Republic of China) is on the decline on the international stage because only twenty-three countries recognize it (Brady, p. vii). In fact, Taiwan s foreign relations go much beyond formal diplomatic recognition. Taiwan and most of the world s major and middle powers have large diplomatic offices in each other s capitals. Taiwan s contests with China are not a zero-sum situation. The rise of one does not mean the decline of the other.