On 27.05.2026, Dafydd Fell held a lecture titled “Debating China under the Shadow of the 1995-96 Cross-Strait Missile Crisis” at the VCTS. The following is the abstract of his lecture:
The year 2026 marks the 30th anniversary of Taiwan’s first direct presidential election. This 1996 election which was widely viewed as a milestone event in Taiwan’s democratization process, occurred at a time of heightened cross-strait relations. China held a series of military exercises and missile tests in the Taiwan Strait that were designed to influence and undermine Taiwan’s historic elections. In this lecture I will examine how Taiwan’s major parties discussed relations with China in their political communication during the election campaign period. Did their positions match the common media stereotypes of Taiwan’s party politics? Was it essentially a referendum on unification or independence? Were Taiwan’s parties highly polarized on relations with China or did they take relatively convergent positions? Although the focus of the lecture will be on the 1996 election, I will briefly touch upon Taiwan’s most recent presidential election in 2024 and compare how the way the parties discuss relations with China has changed three decades later.
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