Preface Why Taiwan Matters is a book I have wanted to write for a long time.It answers the two questions I am asked most often about my work:What makes Taiwan so interesting to you?And,why is Taiwan such a big deal in U.S.-China relations? I hope when you finish reading the book the first question will be an- swered.My goal is to give you an inkling of the excitement I feel every time I step off a plane at the Taoyuan International Airport.I felt that excitement for the first time in 1983 when I was a twenty-one-year-old college student embarking on a summer research project.I will never forget how bewilder- ing,terrifying,and exhilarating it was to find myself standing alone with my suitcase on a hot,dusty sidewalk in Taipei,armed with nothing more than an envelope of traveler's checks,a couple of telephone numbers,and four semesters of Chinese language instruction.Today,arriving in Taipei feels like returning to a second home-but it is a home where time accelerates and people cram three days of living into every twenty-four hours. The second question-why does Taiwan matter so much to U.S.-China relations?-is more complicated.Taiwan matters to the United States and other countries because it is an economic powerhouse that supplies much of our information-technology equipment and because it occupies a strate- gic niche in the Western Pacific.It is unique in the world in having all the attributes of a state-territory,population,government-except recogni- tion by others.The People's Republic of China insists that history makes Taiwan part of China,and because the government in Beijing is the rec- ognized Chinese state,it should rule the island.Few Taiwanese share that view,but there is a lively debate about how to fend off Beijing's attentions Navigating between the two sides-developing amicable relations with vii