>--might i recommend a study of the history of the independence mov't in
Taiwan and China's stance toward it? That might help you get to the answer
For those of us who don't have the time to do that - e.g., those of us trying to deliver a book manuscript to a publisher in just a week - could you summarize? --Doug
---in a nutshell, baby on lap sleeping for maybe 10 minutes if we're lucky, w/re Clark, I have no idea about his sentiments toward China and Taiwan now. In the 80's, he was close to, indeed a good friend of the Taiwanese indepence movement activists, which was a pro-US movement and virulently anti-China. China had no wish to give aid to that wing of the democracy mov't in Taiwan, especially since it was the most powerful element within it. So the idea of Clark back in the 80's or even early 90's having a 'pro-china' position would be kind of odd, given his alliances within Taiwan.
Most of the writing on the left w/re to the Taiwan-China issue is terribly bereft of any historical context and, more important, utterly uninterested in political economy outside an occasional reference to one or the other party's 'economic interests' in reunification. Absolutely no considerations are given to the matter of globalization and what role that plays in how the question is conceptualised and debated in Taiwan and China, let alone in the US. Almost everything you read about Taiwan-China in left publications (i.e. The Nation, In These Times, Progressive,etc.) is written as though they were copied from Taiwanese Independence activists press releases...with no consideration to the class ties of those activists, broader relationship with the US gov't, interests in the question of liberalisation/privatization in Taiwan and China, etc.
I was in Taiwan from 89-93. I went to almost every pro-democracy march that was occurring, sometimes 3 or 4 in a month in Taipei, quite big. Once the democracy question was resolved, I became less and less sympathetic to the independence movement, they tend, to this day, to be strongly pro-privatization, swallow hook line and sinker American ideology. I got closer in my last year to the labor activists and that helped me get a picture of Taiwan's democracy struggle and the question of independence than I could ever get from a liberal-left publication in the US, which assumes that the democratic victories of the DPP were per-se victories for humankind everywhere....
There really is a need for some serious writing on the political economy of the Taiwan-China issue.
The Taiwan issue is kinda like the Tibet issue...it makes americans feel very humanistic to support...they have little or no idea about the history of either. One interesting last thought on the Taiwan matter. A few years ago I had the chance to attend, at the East West Center, a conference on the Taiwan question attended by all the big names from China, Taiwan, and the US on this question. Not a one of them ever made any motion that independence was in the cards for Taiwan, nor was anyone really interested in the matter. The main sentiment on the Taiwan and US side was that it would be best for China to become more 'democratic' (i.e. privatise and wait for the CCP to fall entirely) and then China and Taiwan could unify at the right time...China had to do more to make Taiwan comfortable with the idea....then...they could get together. It was plain to anyone that what is the main issue at hand is a battle between the US and China on extent and pace of privatization, which the Taiwan card gets thrown in as one of a number of bargaining chips.
The funny thing to watch during the conference was the liberal scholars from China trying to explain to the Taiwanese and Americans, who were busy lecturing China to hurry up with the economic and political opening up business, that they were concerned about becoming like Russia....that these matters took time....The Taiwanese and Americans had no interest in such picayune matters, which left the Chinese somewhat bemused...How could their former mentors back in the States be so unable to understand an elementary concern?
The Chinese liberal scholars of course had long ago eschewed a critique of capitalism, let alone imperialism....nonetheless, they were really the only ones who spoke with any relevance to historical context....and they were just as ideological on the issue of markets as the Taiwanese and Americans!
Anyone that thinks that Clark was saavy to these matters...should check out who he was helping out in the 80's...who adored him in Taiwan and who didn't...and China's view of those that adored Clark.
Steve