Stormy Seas: Taiwan Under the Shadow of China in the 21st CenturyBy Thung-Hong LinStanford University Press, 2026

Taiwan’s turbulent place in global society is a perennial feature of the IR curriculum and a valuable case-study for the discussion of geo-political asymmetry. This new volume by Thung-Hong Lin, from Taiwan’s Academia Sinica and former Fulbright Fellow, is a model of diligent research and measured discussion. As an observer of Taiwan for more than thirty years, the singular dilemma of Taiwan’s international position remains its “David and Goliath” relationship with China. With the prepotency of the People’s Republic (PRC) in the past three decades, Taiwan has appeared increasingly precarious. A cynical commentator might well place Taiwan’s destiny in the hands of the USA. Taiwan occupies a unique status in the potential protection it enjoys from the US. This security has seen high-points in recent years, not only in the USA’s flexing of its military muscle in the region, but notably in the visit of former House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi.

The opening words of this substantial volume are among the most prescient of the book:

On August 2nd, 2022, a US military aircraft with the call sign SPAR19 took off from Kuala Lumpur. The plane’s primary passenger was Nancy Pelosi … (the plane’s) evasive path drew massive global attention, with over 2.9 million people tracking the flight. When the plane landed safely in Taipei, crowds near the runway broke into tears.

On August 2nd, 2022, a US military aircraft with the call sign SPAR19 took off from Kuala Lumpur. The plane’s primary passenger was Nancy Pelosi … (the plane’s) evasive path drew massive global attention, with over 2.9 million people tracking the flight. When the plane landed safely in Taipei, crowds near the runway broke into tears.

Pelosi’s visit created enormous diplomatic discussion and felt as much a provocation as (implicitly) a diplomatic body-blow to Beijing’s senior mandarins. Shortly after arrival, Pelosi took to social media to note, “America’s solidarity with the 23 million people of Taiwan is more important today than ever, as the world faces a choice between autocracy and democracy”. She went on to stress: “America’s continued opposition to any unilateral changes to the status quo”. In so many ways, the sentiments demonstrated by Pelosi and the contested landscape of the Formosa Strait, are at the very core of this book. Lin goes on to tell this story with a range of source-material seldom assembled so impressively, in one study.

If Lin’s introduction was not such an impressive synthesis of the Taiwan imbroglio, and the eight chapters a formidable analysis of the Sturm und Drang of Taiwanese political........

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