Generational Politics and Taiwan-U.S. SecurityIssues : How do the views of Taiwan’s generations compare on theU.S. security commitment?

Abstract: Sovereignty over Taiwan remains one of the most contentious issues of the modern era, and disagreements on both sides of the Taiwan Strait persist to this day. The United States continues to have an active interest in the situation, often playing the role of arbiter between the governments of Beijing and Taipei. With Taiwan’s transition to a multi-party democracy in the late 80s and early 90s, there has been a growing body of research into public opinion on the island. Existing literature has found both party identification and independence/unification support to impact on public attitudes regarding cross-strait security issues. However, the impact of generation is comparatively under examined. The current study builds on recent research into Taiwan’s generational politics. A questionnaire was distributed to members of the public in Taiwan to determine how attitudes vary by generation on the security commitment between the United States and Taiwan. An analysis of survey responses failed to establish a correlation between generation and attitudes towards U.S. support. Nevertheless, generational politics adds nuance to our understanding of public opinion in Taiwan concerning cross-strait relations.