Richard C. Bush kicks off his thorough examination of Taiwan with a succinct understatement: “Taiwan has never had it easy”—a dearth of natural resources, “large and sometimes predatory neighbors,” and earthquakes to boot (p. 1). Yet, in recent decades, Taiwan has not just survived but thrived as it has pursued export-led industrialization alongside a transition from an authoritarian regime to democracy. Bush draws on government statements, policy and academic writings, polling data, and his vast firsthand experience to capture in exquisite detail the daunting challenges that now jeopardize Taiwan's future trajectory.
Difficult Choices begins by situating the reader regarding terminology and current popular attitudes in Taiwan. Several chapters then delve into specific areas, including Taiwan's government budget, economy, energy policy, and transitional justice. Foreign policymakers and anyone else who is not immersed in Taiwan should read this book before opining on anything to do with Taiwan, and experts on Taiwan will also learn much from this encyclopedic volume. For instance, Bush provides crucial context—stretching back more than fifty years—for understanding why current debates about nuclear energy are so fraught and politicized. Bush's keen description of Taiwan's internal challenges are particularly welcome at a time of increasing international attention to the potential for conflict between Taiwan and the People's Republic of China (PRC).
Bush also devotes chapters to Taiwan's external affairs by addressing US policy toward Taiwan and tracing the historical arc that leads him to believe “the shift in the motivation of Beijing's Taiwan policy from fear to greed” (p. 246). Importantly, he embeds these topics in a book that is focused not on cross-strait relations but on Taiwan: a complicated, resilient, and flawed protagonist that has agency. The people of Taiwan are making their own free choices. Beijing is the source of the most difficult choice that Taiwan faces: how to deal with a neighbor that poses an existential threat and asserts military force as a possible means of achieving its aims. Many of Taiwan's “difficult choices” among not-great options are, however, domestically centered, including tough choices “between rising energy demands and environmental protection, between economic growth and economic equity, and between the needs of the young and the needs of the elderly” (p. 5). Difficult Choices examines how Beijing's actions also influence these debates: “[A] New Taiwan dollar spent on education or social welfare is a dollar unavailable for defense, and the reverse is also true” (p. 176). That said, Bush's analysis is not PRC-centric, and that is refreshing.
The final chapter, “What to Do?,” takes a prescriptive turn. Along with clear advice on discrete issues, Bush's overarching call is for the people of Taiwan to reject political polarization and instead expand their common ground. The urgent need for interparty cooperation was all the more salient writing this in July 2021, in light of political cleavages that undermined Taiwan's ability to tame its worst COVID-19 outbreak to date. Once this immediate crisis fades, Bush pushes Taiwan's leaders to tackle the myriad of systemic challenges, because “[t]o defer choices is itself a choice, and not one that is in the broader public interest” (p. 46). Bush ends with cautious optimism that such determined, timely action is possible: “The people of Taiwan deserve no less” (p. 344).
Ultimately, while Difficult Choices triumphs in depth and breadth, reading it also reminds us that no one book can be the book on Taiwan, both because there are so many facets to examine and because there are so many voices that should do that work. As an example, Bush explains how the Kuomintang (KMT) takeover of Taiwan was “brutal” (p. 104) and the opposition that flared as a result of the February 28 Incident of 1947 (pp. 22–28) “was quashed quickly and brutally with indiscriminate violence” (p. 105). Yet his descriptions of the 1970s and early 1980s—“when it came to civil liberties and political rights, Taiwan was still a rough place” and “[a] few of the targets of KMT repression had experiences more horrific than being confined to prison” (p. 107)—do not fully capture the extent of the pain suffered even during the waning years of martial law and how that pain still resonates for many in Taiwan.
Similarly, detailed survey data reveal but do not illuminate the experience of younger generations whose identity has been shaped in a democratic Taiwan.Footnote 1 The contrasts are diminishing between those whose families arrived after 1945 with the KMT and those whose families were already living in Taiwan. Thus, while Difficult Choices provides readers with a thoughtful, clear-eyed exploration of Taiwan, it is, by nature, a book with more brains than heart. And that is exactly what it should be, given who the author is: “a male, Caucasian; . . . a citizen of the United States of America; . . . and so on” (as Bush describes himself when illustrating the role of identity) (p. 187).
After absorbing the deep, astute analysis in Difficult Choices, it should be an easy choice for readers to explore additional writings to gain an even more textured understanding from Taiwanese voices. If domestic and foreign audiences heed Bush's seasoned perspective as an outside expert who is rooting for Taiwan's success, the chances will improve that the strength of Taiwan, and the voices in it, will grow.
