China and Taiwan: not yet ‘Greater China’

Relations between the People's Republic of China and Taiwan have undergone extensive change over recent years, encouraging speculation about the possibility of integration into a ‘Greater China’. The expansion of trade between the two entities, as well as inward investment in the PRC by Taiwan entrepreneurs, seems to offer potential for development into a closer political as well as economic relationship. However, factors crucial to the development of such a relationship—domestic politics and conceptions of national security in both the PRC and Taiwan—could either hinder or foster such developments. In this article Professor Crane explores the possibilities, drawing on a typology of interdependence developed by Keohane and Nye as well as on European and North American experience.