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The Taiwan Tinderbox: The Island-Nation at the Center of the New Cold War
- GenresChina
272 pages, Hardcover
Published November 25, 2025
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 5, 2025
J. Michael Cole has just written an important new book on Taiwan, the Taiwan Tinder Box. I'll admit from the top that it's written more for policy and think tank types than the general reader, but it has a number of important ideas I haven't seen well described elsewhere. Namely:
- Taiwan's blue-green politics is no longer purely a matter of where your grandparents were born and what language they spoke. In other words, the classic divide between China-born waishengren 外省人 and Taiwan-born benshengren is not an absolute marker of political leanings today as it was in the past. One can still make generalizations like most benshengren vote DPP, but on the whole, things are not so clearly clean cut. This began to change in the 2000s-2010s with....
- The rise of Taiwan civil society. Non-government organizations, charities, activist groups, and even to some extent religious groups, focusing on causes like environmentalism, disaster relief, queer rights, etc, brought together Taiwanese from different backgrounds and helped cement the then emerging idea of a shared "Taiwanese" identity. 2nd and 3rd generation waishengren have protested KMT governments and blocked major policies, like a 2014 trade agreement with China that would've eroded Taiwan's sovereignty. At the same time, the majority of Taiwanese businessmen in China are, believe it or not, benshengren. As Beijing pressures them to exhibit loyalty, many have gone in for China-friendly politics that aligns more with the KMT. Tsai Eng-meng is one visible example of a Taiwan-born benshengren who purchased a major newspaper, The China Times, and a cable TV network, CTV, and has imposed a pro-Beijing editorial slant.
That's what I personally found most interesting. But the book covers much more:
- the military / strategic balance between Taiwan, China and the US;
- the rapid changes in the PRC in the last 20 years (not just since Xi came to power)––Cole believes the biggest change and source of the PRC's threats against Taiwan is the vast increase in its military capabilities;
- how Ukraine has changed things;
- what a war (or blockade, or quarantine) might look like;
- what Taiwan, the US and international community can do to avoid war (the answer is not to stop "aggravating" Beijing);
- and ultimately, why Taiwan is important to other nations (especially liberal democracies) strategically, economically and morally.
I have a full review in the Taipei Times:
https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat...
- Taiwan's blue-green politics is no longer purely a matter of where your grandparents were born and what language they spoke. In other words, the classic divide between China-born waishengren 外省人 and Taiwan-born benshengren is not an absolute marker of political leanings today as it was in the past. One can still make generalizations like most benshengren vote DPP, but on the whole, things are not so clearly clean cut. This began to change in the 2000s-2010s with....
- The rise of Taiwan civil society. Non-government organizations, charities, activist groups, and even to some extent religious groups, focusing on causes like environmentalism, disaster relief, queer rights, etc, brought together Taiwanese from different backgrounds and helped cement the then emerging idea of a shared "Taiwanese" identity. 2nd and 3rd generation waishengren have protested KMT governments and blocked major policies, like a 2014 trade agreement with China that would've eroded Taiwan's sovereignty. At the same time, the majority of Taiwanese businessmen in China are, believe it or not, benshengren. As Beijing pressures them to exhibit loyalty, many have gone in for China-friendly politics that aligns more with the KMT. Tsai Eng-meng is one visible example of a Taiwan-born benshengren who purchased a major newspaper, The China Times, and a cable TV network, CTV, and has imposed a pro-Beijing editorial slant.
That's what I personally found most interesting. But the book covers much more:
- the military / strategic balance between Taiwan, China and the US;
- the rapid changes in the PRC in the last 20 years (not just since Xi came to power)––Cole believes the biggest change and source of the PRC's threats against Taiwan is the vast increase in its military capabilities;
- how Ukraine has changed things;
- what a war (or blockade, or quarantine) might look like;
- what Taiwan, the US and international community can do to avoid war (the answer is not to stop "aggravating" Beijing);
- and ultimately, why Taiwan is important to other nations (especially liberal democracies) strategically, economically and morally.
I have a full review in the Taipei Times:
https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat...
Displaying 1 of 1 review