Professor discusses conflicts over Taiwan Strait

The Learning Institute for Elders at UCF and Global Perspectives presented University of Maryland Associate Professor Scott Kastner at 9 a.m. on Tuesday in the Pegasus Ballroom, where he spoke about the economic and political relations across the Taiwan Strait between Taiwan and the People's Republic of China. Throughout the two-hour lecture, Kastner emphasized both past and current tensions between the PRC and Taiwan and their effects on the upcoming presidential election in Taiwan on Saturday.

LIFE is an organization that brings a variety of topics for discussion through group lectures throughout the semester. Due to the 500 LIFE members in attendance, these lectures are usually not open to UCF students, though exceptions have been made for classes and generally interested students. Kastner was one of the many speakers the group has scheduled as a part of their curriculum for the 2012 semester.

Kastner, relating back to the ease of tensions between the PRC and Taiwan due to the inauguration of the current president, Ma Ying-jeou, held a more warily positive outlook for future cross-Strait relations in comparison to others in his field.

"I will also emphasize that I'm cautious in my optimism, and I'm cautious because the issue at the core of this long-standing dispute between mainland China and Taiwan is something that, for the foreseeable future, is fundamentally intractable," Kastner said.

Taiwan was kept under martial law during the end of the Chinese Civil War from the 1950s to the 1980s, and it wasn't until 1986 that the PRC's president, Chiang Ching-kuo, democratized Taiwan, and ever since, competing feelings of a strictly Taiwanese national identity and a strictly Chinese national identity, coupled with a growing sense of Taiwanese nationalism, have ruled the state and continue to be a major source for rising tensions.

LIFE President Martin Wiener found Kastner's presentation interesting, as he had worked previously with a Taiwanese company for almost two years.

"I thought it was informative," Wiener said. "I really didn't pay much attention to [the politics] at the time because it didn't affect me in my day-to-day activities. I guess when you're working there and you're in the sales area … you don't worry too much about the politics that are happening."

Kastner felt that the Taiwan election this weekend could impact the United States, and in a way, UCF students as well.

"Stability ultimately requires pragmatism and flexibility by Taiwan and the PRC, and we've seen episodes in the past where both sides have shied away from a pragmatic approach," Kastner said. "If you think about East Asia and the potential trouble spots [there], the United States has been worried for a long time about the possibility of conflict in the Taiwan Strait. I think [for] anyone who is interested in global affairs and the U.S. role in the world it's an issue that should be of at least some interest."

Curriculum Committee Chair and LIFE board member, Patricia James, felt the presentation should have been lengthened to accommodate questions after the lecture.

"Many people, myself included, said we wish we had been able to hear more from the Chinese and Taiwanese members from the audience who spoke at the end of the questioning," James said. "We've discussed ways we can do that in the future, [but] we were very eager to hear from those members of our community from China and Taiwan, and we didn't get to hear much of that. We regretted that."