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Home Issues Backissues Volume 31, No.1 Taiwan-China Complex and Taiwan-China Concern: Symbolic Politics in Taiwan' s Elections

Taiwan-China Complex and Taiwan-China Concern: Symbolic Politics in Taiwan' s Elections

Huo-yan Shyu
2004 / 11
Volume 11, No.2

pp.1-41
10.6612/tjes.2004.11.02.01-41
Paper

Abstract

“Taiwan vs. China” complex has been taken as the major factor that draws partisan line between parties along the “Taiwan-independence and China-unification” stance on the one hand and influences vote-choice among Taiwanese and Mainlanders on the other. Yet, this linkage has not been explored empirically as far. According to symbolic politics theory, Taiwanese vote-choices are influenced more by political affect than self-interest. The paper argues that those political affect components, as shown either in determining individual’s vote-choices or in party’s strategy of electoral mobilization, can be effectively channeled down to this “Taiwan vs. China” complex. The paper recasts this culturally deep-seated concept by looking at its derivative psycho-political orientations, so-called “Taiwan vs. China” concern, which is measured by a cluster of affective-driven beliefs in Taiwan’s supremacy and/or concerns for China. Based on an analysis of post-electoral survey data of the 1998 and 2001 legislative elections, two-factor structure is found in the “Taiwan vs. China” concerns, and this polarized affect orientation serves as a link to relate socio-demographic characteristics to ethnic identification, national identity, party identification,　independence-unification stance as well as to partisan vote-choice. Symbolic politics in Taiwan’s election is thus confirmed by individual’s affect-driven vote-choices. In sum, the paper concludes that the empirical import of “Taiwan-China complex” concept can be identified as two groups of political affect components around “Taiwan vs. China” concerns in a two second-order factor analysis.

Keywords

political mood

political emotion

political affect

symbolic politics

Taiwan-China concerns

Taiwan-China complex