Taiwanese voters preferred stability over formal independence in the early 1990s

Evidence

In the mid-1990s major issues still exist between Taipei and Beijing including the question of sovereignty, Taiwan’s participation in international organizations, and the possibility that Taiwan might redefine itself as an independent state. The likelihood of the latter happening, however, became increasingly remote as the principal advocate of independence, the Democratic Progressive Party, found that Taiwanese voters did not want to disrupt existing relations with the mainland and that its electoral prospects would be hurt by pressing the issue. DPP leaders hence emphasized that if they did win power, independence would not be an immediate item on their agenda. The two governments also shared a common interest in asserting Chinese sovereignty over the Spratly and other islands in the South China Sea and in assuring American most favored nation treatment in trade for the mainland. In the early 1990s, slowly but perceptively and ineluctably, the two Chinas were moving toward each other and developing common interests from their expanding economic relations and shared cultural identity. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 468