Since Taiwan’s President Chen Shui-bian’s 2004 pledge to pursue constitutional revision, Chinese commentators have warned that Chen will manipulate the process to achieve de jure independence from the mainland, a step it says would lead to war. Despite Beijing’s saber rattling, constitutional reform on Taiwan has been a central part of the island’s twenty years’ evolution from authoritarianism to democracy. What are the current parameters of debate on constitutional revision in Taipei? Will political polarization in Taiwan prevent consensus on the next step in changing the constitution? What are the American interests in an issue that may open the next cross-Strait rift? On January 22, AEI will hold a half-day conference to discuss these and other questions relating to the prospects for constitutional change in Taiwan.
